The Brave One
by BloomingFireHeart
Summary: A young girl named Samantha who's mother works as a guard for Arkham Asylum, finds herself caught in some trouble with a man named Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, one of the inmates in Arkham. Scarecrow/OC
1. Threat

**Hello. This is a story about a young girls experience with a villain named Jonathan Crane.**

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The Brave One

Chapter One

Threat

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Samantha Steller walked with her mother in the dark halls of Arkham Asylum. A place the criminally insane would naturally call _home_.

It was the first time that she had ever visited the Asylum. She walked the halls with a swift pace trying to keep up with her mother.

Her mother, named June Steller, was a former police officer, here to make sure the inmates of Arkham didn't escape into the streets of Gotham. Miss Steller was fairly strong willed and walked the halls with no fear at all, while her daughter stayed close to her side.

They continued their way through the cell block, which was where the Asylum kept most of its inmates. The girl just stared at some of the inmates in their cages, while her mother kept her eyes forward, ignoring the prisoners in their cells.

The girl had to admit that she felt a little sorry for them, they were all locked up, having their independence taken away from them. The inmates just looked so sad to her, hiding in the corners of their cages.

She studied the criminals with sorrowful eyes, while her mother suddenly stopped at the interview room. Her mother had a serious look on her face as she looked through the glass of the room, watching an inmate with dark hair and bluish-green eyes intensely.

"That's Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow." Sam heard her mother said with a scowl. Her mouth was in a thin line, and she could tell that her mother was nervous. _She acted like he was the devil himself._

Samantha just simply stared at the young man with some curiosity. She had heard about Jonathan Crane before. Her mother had told her that Crane had killed a good friend of hers, one of guards who had once worked at the Asylum with her. She was told that Crane apparently killed him with a special gas that installs fear into anyone who breaths it. It was said that he had literally scared her mother's friend _to death._

Sam had also seen a drawn sketch of him once from a victim's descriptions, but she never saw him in person before. She noticed that he looked exactly like the shaded sketch. He was a thin, tall with his hair gelled back and a pair of glasses on the tip of his nose.

He didn't look like he had much strength at all nor did he look like he was really insane. Instead, he looked clean and didn't drool all over himself like some of the other inmates did. She actually wondered if this man was actually as crazy as they claimed him to be.

"He doesn't look like a criminal." Sam stated knowing that looks could be deceiving, but putting her two cents in anyway.

"Well, Crane is a criminal and he's probably the worst of them all." Her mother growled. "I want you to stay away from him Samantha. He can and will kill you. Do you understand?"

Samantha just nodded and saw some guards suddenly carry Crane away from the doctor who was interviewing him. The doctor looked frighened as the guards opened the door and stormed out, dragging Crane out with them…

...and then he looked at Sam. Crane smirked at her like a predator does to its prey. The doctor in the interview room left with a horrified expression on his face and her mother glared at Crane with a strong hatred. Crane simply just turned and smiled at Samantha's mother.

"Hello Miss Steller. I see you brought your daughter with you today." Crane greeted calmly. He sounded actually normal, but Samantha could still see that he almost chuckled as his eyes were focused on her mother, making her feel a little uncomfortable.

"Take him away to his cell." Her mother ordered through her teeth. The guard just nodded slightly and walked away dragging Crane along with him. Crane took one last glance at Sam and her mother.

"I would be careful if I were you, Miss Steller. Who knows what might happen to that daughter of yours." Crane warned while grinning. Her mother bit her lip hard causing her to bleed a little bit.

Sam just stood there, stunned that her life was just threatened.


	2. Dr Jonanthan Crane

The Brave One

Chapter Two

Dr. Jonathan Crane

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Sam sat comfortably in her chair, doodling on a piece of paper. Her mother had told her to stay in her office and to not come out unless of an emergency. Her mother was such a worry-wart, locking poor Sam in her office with nothing to do.

Sam wanted nothing more than to explore the Asylum and find out more on the inmates who lived here. It was a creepy place, but Sam was eager to search for all of Arkham's dark, secrets. The encounter with Jonathan Crane had left her to become more interested in this place and its history.

She was thinking about working as a sketch artist for the police. That job now seemed like it would be exciting to her. She adored art and _anything_ about art. It was her dream to become an artist and she was determined to make it come true. Her optimistic personality made it seem like she could accomplish anything if she set her mind to it. Besides she was the daughter of a former police officer after all. _How hard could it be?_

Sam sighed and then let her thoughts drift towards the criminal known as Crane. There was a file on him entitled _Scarecrow _on the side of her mother's desk. She couldn't help but to open it and take a peek inside the mysterious file. She read it slowly and carefully, taking every word in.

_Dr. Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow_

_Sex: Male_

_Height: 6'0"_

_Weight: 140 pounds_

_Eyes: Blue_

_Hair: Brown_

_Occupation: Professional criminal; former professor of psychology in Gotham University_

_Education: Gotham University_

_-Uses toxic gases that can make a person's fear come alive._

_-Specializes in psychology and chemistry._

_-Wears a scarecrow outfit and mask to scare his victims._

The rest of the file was just information on some of his victims and how he had experimented on them with the special fear gas. The file also explained why he was so dangerous. Sam could see that Dr. Crane was a very intelligent, calculating man, who could manipulate anyone by just simply using their fears against them. Not to mention the fact that his profession was in psychology, the study of the human mind. Sam realized that he could easily kill her.

However Sam wondered more about Dr. Crane's childhood. The file had absolutely nothing on his relatives or his childhood in general. She found that to be a little strange and it compelled her to want to at least try to talk to this man. To understand where he was coming from and why he would choose a life of crime. More importantly, she wanted to know why he had threatened her.

In the file it was saying that Dr. Crane was insane, but Sam couldn't believe that. Crane never crossed Sam as the insane type. He looked too calm and quiet to be crazy. Instead, she thought that maybe he was very hurt inside. She then remembered a quote by Carl Jung. "_The healthy man does not torture others. Generally it is the tortured that turn into torturers." _Maybe Crane had been abused as a child, Sam thought sadly. She then began thinking about when she met him and how she saw him smirking at her with an animal hate. Like all that he knew was anger and pain.

"He is probably angry with the world." Sam said quietly to herself as she was deep in thought.

The more she sat there and looked at the file, the more she was becoming depressed. This was all a lot to think about and she wasn't necessarily too concerned, but she wanted to prepare herself in case Crane or any of the other inmates tried attacking her. Her mother always taught her to be careful and cautious. However, she couldn't deny the fact that she felt very sorry for Crane. Even criminals were only human.

Sam rubbed her temples as she continued to stare at Crane's file. She was way too absorbed in her own thoughts to see that her mother had been calling her.

"Samantha!" Her mother's voice echoed through her ears, pulling Sam back to reality. Her mother was standing at the door with an annoyed look upon her face. "Samantha I called your name three times. You need to pay more attention."

"Sorry. I was day dreaming, I guess." Sam replied still looking down at Crane's file. Her mother just sighed and took a seat next to daughter.

"Listen honey, I want you to be more careful around this place. It's dangerous and who knows what could happen to you. You're only seventeen and you're still just a kid." Her mother continued to lecture. "I'm afraid you will get hurt here, so maybe you should live with your sister for a while." She put her hand gently on Sam's shoulder while giving a light sigh. Her mother was always so calm and overprotective when it came to her youngest daughter.

"Mom, I don't need to live with my sister. I'm just fine here." Sam reassured her mother, wishing she wouldn't be so paranoid. She knew her mother was worried about Crane's threat on her life, but her mother had to understand that it was time for her youngest daughter to be an adult now. Sam had gotten through high school with flying colors and soon she would be eighteen in August. _Hell, her sister was already married with two kids._

"Sorry." Her mother apologized, looking at Sam with apparent sorrow in her eyes. "I sometimes forget that you are becoming an adult now. I just want to make sure your safe. You'll be going to college soon and I won't be there to protect you." Her voice sounded like she was hurting inside, but her face was stern and intense, covering her weakness.

Sam was about to say something when there was a sudden siren sounding frantically through the halls. Sam could hear the sound of several feet stomping outside the office door. Sam wondered what was going on. Then there was an announcement on the intercom that made her shiver.

_An inmate has escaped!_


	3. Phobias

**Writer's Notes: I will try to update as fast as I can. I have many creative ideas to add to this story. Once again I need more opinions on this story. Feel free to criticize me.**

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The Brave One

Chapter Three

Phobias

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Samantha couldn't explain it, but she actually felt really _excited_. The adrenaline was coursing through her veins and was causing her to stand up from her mother's office chair.

Her mother had rushed out of the door in a flash and took one last look at her daughter. She frowned slightly as she quickly spoke to her.

"Stay here." She ordered sternly as she sprinted out into the narrow hallway.

However, Sam simply couldn't stand still. Her interest was slowly eating her up inside, telling her to leave her mother's office unprotected.

A billion questions buzzed around in her head. _Who escaped? Was it possibly Jonathan Crane? How did they escape with so many cameras and guards around?_ She couldn't help but to want to find out for herself.

She walked out of her mother's office and into the hallway. Surprisingly enough, she had felt calm. She wasn't shaking or trembling at all.

Her heart held on to a steady rhythm as she made her way through the long hall. The loud sirens were still echoing throughout the building.

As she slowly made her way down to one of the main rooms, she noticed that the inmates were staring at her with interest.

All the inmates were there and they looked much happier now. They grinned at her through their cages, making her become slightly uncomfortable.

She kept walking, knowing that the inmates were all giving her a strange look.

However, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed a dead guard propped against the wall.

_Oh, god. _She thought to herself as she became a little nervous. _Is he still alive?_

Sam immediately rushed up to the guard's body and placed two fingers on his neck to check for a pulse, but she could tell that it was already too late. _He was dead._

She could hear some of the inmates giggle as she took a step back from the guard's lifeless body.

Her heart ached the more she looked at the guards face. Swiftly, she turned away from him and kept walking down the hallway, now becoming even more concerned.

She finally saw a cell where the door was wide open with no inmates in it. Something told her to turn back and run to her mother's office, but she ignored the feeling. A guards keys were hanging from the cell's door.

The shadows of excited inmates started to dance amongst the dirty white walls. Sam was about to turn back when she heard a familiar eerie voice echo throughout the halls.

"_Samantha." _The voice said along with a frightening laugh.

Sam quickly turned to find the source of the mysterious voice, but there was nothing there. No one was in the hallway except for the inmates in their cells.

_Where was that voice coming from? Was it the intercom? _Sam questioned, starting to feel very confused.

She only heard the voice with its torturing laughter. The lights were suddenly flickering off and on, making it harder to see anything through the hallway. The inmates were becoming uneasy, like they knew what was down that hallway and they were afraid of it.

The voice spoke again.

"_Tell me Samantha. What is your greatest fear?" _The demonic voice chuckled loudly as it echoed within the walls.

_"Shall we see?" _The voice sounded like it was getting closer to Sam now.

She quickly prepared to stand her ground, ready to fight whatever was down the hallway. She reminded herself that she had to be strong like her mother.

The inmates began screaming and shouting in their cells and Sam's vision became blurry as the chaos continued. The hallway seemed to be getting thinner and tighter. It was getting difficult to breathe…

_Then the lights went out completely._

Sam couldn't see a thing. She wasn't usually afraid of the dark, but now she was getting anxious. She could hear the screams of the inmates getting louder. They banged against their cells, wanting out.

She once again heard the voice speak to her, sounding like it was whispering into her ear. It was almost like a ghost…

"_Nyctophobia, philemaphobia, aquaphobia…" _The voice kept listing phobias and fears. Some of which, Sam hadn't even heard of. The voice sounded uncomfortably close. _"So Samantha, which one is yours?" _The voice referred to the phobias it had listed.

"I don't know." She actually replied this time, sensing that the voice was behind her now.

Suddenly, she then felt a strong grip on her shoulders, grabbing her from behind. She felt the atmosphere around her become heavier. _It was becoming harder to breath_.

The inmates continued their screaming and the voice just laughed at their agony.

"_Well, then I will personally find out, Samantha." _It whispered into her ears hotly, wanting her to scream. Yet, Samantha didn't show her fear at all.

Her courage burned inside of her and she had asked a question that had been roaming her mind since she had walked out of her mother's office.

"Who are you? What's your name?" Sam asked the voice with confidence.

"_Scarecrow." _It answered as the grip on her body was being released.

The lights turned back on and there was nothing there. She felt herself falling onto the cold floor, feeling her mind turning fuzzy.

The next thing that she heard was her mother's voice and the clacking of shoes against the hard floor.

Her mother shouted Sam's name down the halls. Some of the inmates lie in their cages, _dead._

Samantha closed her eyes as she slowly drifted into darkness. Her mother's cry became more audible through the halls as her body laid helplessly on the ground.

The demonic voice was gone.


	4. Worst Fear

**I do not own any characters from Batman. I don't even own Dr. Combs. I only own Miss Steller and Samantha. Also, thank you for all your generous comments. I apologize for the long wait on this chapter.**

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The Brave One

Chapter Four

Worst Fear

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The intelligent criminal, Jonathan Crane was sitting calmly in his cell with a tight jacket strapped on to his thin body. He relaxed and enjoyed the view of the white, moldy wall he was facing. He had been put into solitary confinement after the incident with Samantha and so far he had been stuck in this white room for about a week.

The Warden had been furious with Crane's reckless behavior and punished Crane by also putting him in an electric chair for some shock therapy. Crane was in a lot of pain after that, but it was all worth it. He had been working endlessly to expose Miss Steller's fear and due to his little visit with Samantha he had finally manage to get Miss Steller to have a mental break down.

Even if it wasn't exactly how he planned it, he had caused Miss Steller to experience her fear of losing her daughter.

However, Crane had also found Samantha to be a very fascinating test subject. When he tested his fear gas on Samantha he was expecting her to scream, yet she didn't seem to show any signs of fear. He wanted to know why his toxin caused her to faint. Possibly, the chemicals in the formula of the fear toxin were so strong that it was the cause of Samantha's fainting spell. He would have to find a way to make an improved batch later and then he could experiment on her again.

As he sat in his dark, cell, Crane could hear two pairs of footsteps walk down the hall way. He became surprised when the footsteps ended at his door. The door opened and revealed two guards standing at the opening. One of them was Miss Steller. Crane just looked up at them, slightly blinded by the sudden bright light that had entered his cell.

"Get up, Crane." Miss Steller ordered with slight anger in her voice. "Dr. Combs wants to interview you."

Crane just obeyed her command and stood up from where he sat. Miss Steller and the other guard angrily grabbed Crane by the shoulders and dragged him out of his cell. They walked down the narrow halls with an iron grip on Crane's shoulders.

They pushed and pulled him along until they reached the interview room. Then they roughly shoved Crane in the room and stood by the door. Miss Steller kept her intense gaze on Crane's thin body, watching his every move as he took a seat in the chair opposite from Dr. Combs.

"Good evening, Mr. Combs." Crane greeted the doctor as he tried to get comfortable in his tight straitjacket.

Dr. Combs sat in his comfortable chair with his hands folded neatly in his lap. He sat there wanting nothing more than to run right out of the room and never look back. Crane could see that his hands were shaking. Dr. Combs sighed miserably.

"Hello Crane. I heard that you tried to escape from your cell last week." Dr. Combs replied with courage in his voice, but Crane knew better. He could sense that Dr. Combs was afraid. "Care to explain why you attacked that young girl?"

"I did it for my research." Crane explained while looking over at Miss Steller who glared back at Crane with rage burning in her eyes, which he returned with a smirk. "I wanted to understand Samantha and figure out what she fears the most."

"You caused her to faint." Dr. Combs said as he gave Miss Steller a sorrowful look. Crane was calmly and patiently waiting for Dr. Combs to get to the point. "Don't you feel any guilt?"

"No." Crane answered. He saw from the corner of his eye that Miss Steller was clenching her fists into tiny balls, her knuckles turning white with anger. Crane then knew that he had done some heavy damage on Miss Steller's mind. She was so terrified of losing her daughter that she used anger as a defense mechanism.

Dr. Combs just sighed like he was afraid that Crane would say that. His eyes darted around the room searching for a way out. A way to get out of this situation which he knew was going to unfold into chaos. He didn't want to ask this question because he already had a good idea on how Crane would answer it and it wasn't going to do Miss Steller any good, but he needed to ask it.

"Would you do it again? Attack that young girl a second time?" Dr. Combs asked as he was generally concerned for Miss Steller's daughter. It was the whole reason he had set up this interview. He wanted Miss Steller to see that Crane would go as far as he needed to go for his research, even if it meant killing Samantha to do it. It would be better if she quitted this job while she could. This place is just too dangerous. He was afraid that Miss Steller and her daughter could get hurt or worse if this kept continuing.

"Well, Dr. Combs I think it would be best if I continued experimenting on the young girl. Don't you?" Crane spoke in a sophisticated manner. He was calm and his blue eyes scanned Dr. Combs as he spoke intelligently. For a moment he glanced over at Miss Steller and almost grinned. Her eyes had widened with shock and then turned back into a glare of fury. He couldn't help but delight himself in her pain and fear as he continued to speak. "There is no sense in starting something and then not finishing it. Don't you agree doctor?"

That was it. Before anyone could say another word, Miss Steller rushed towards Crane, screaming and shouting profanities. Her fist was stretched out and she was preparing for an attack. She charged him and punched him right in the face almost knocking him to the ground.

"Don't ever touch my daughter again!" Miss Steller shouted at Crane and stomped out of the room. Crane just sat there rocked back and forth in pain.

Dr. Combs sat in his comfy chair and frowned. _His and Miss Steller's worst fears have been realized._


	5. Nightmares

The Brave One

Chapter 5

Nightmares

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Samantha loved to draw. It was much more than just a hobby to her. She put her soul into her drawings, making them as realistic as possible. It brought her joy to make beautiful works of art, even if it took her hours to finish them.

Sam had a beautiful arrangement of flowers that sat on her dresser, just waiting to be drawn in her sketch book. She had sat comfortably on her bed with her sketch book and pencil in her lap.

Sam could see the sun setting from out her window, almost ready to descend down the horizon. She couldn't help but to go over and open the window, feeling the warm air of summer on her skin.

She admired the sky. It was in dramatic colors of pinks, oranges and yellows. She smiled slightly at the spectacular sight and then quickly sat back down on her bed, picking up her pencil and feeling inspired.

The window brought in comforting hues of reds and pinks that enriched the room with warm color. The light had hit the arrangement of flowers perfectly and brightened the colors of their petals.

Sam focused on drawing the outline of the flowers, carefully drawing each and every line realistically. She was calm, taking in every line and color with detail. She felt stronger and was in high spirits. Nothing could possibly hurt her. She didn't have a single worry in her mind even though it had been only a week since she had fainted from Crane's attack.

When she had her fainting spell from scarecrow, Sam was hospitalized for two days because of her loss of consciousness. She didn't really need to stay in the hospital for two days, but her mother insisted that she stayed for at least one more day. Just to make sure that Sam was really alright. She wasn't too pleased that she had to stay another day, but she did not complain about it.

The doctors were just surprised that Sam had survived an attack from one of Gotham's famous super villains. They were even more shocked by how many hallucinogenic drugs and chemicals they found in her blood. It seemed like a miracle that Sam survived the amount of drugs that entered her body.

Sam was surprisingly unfazed by her encounter with the infamous Scarecrow. She acted like it never happened. Like everything was content.

Her mother on the other hand was becoming even more protective over her daughter. It seemed to Sam that her mother was becoming more and more paranoid each day. Locking doors and windows, staying up late at night, trying to convince Sam to sleep in her room, it was all too much to take.

Her mother's increasing paranoid behavior was both annoying and frustrating for Sam. She understood that her mother was just trying to protect her, but now it was getting a little out of hand. After all, her mother couldn't protect her from _everything_.

Sam was also having trouble sleeping lately. Even though she acted like nothing happened, she secretly wanted to find out more information on Dr. Crane. She had been having reoccurring dreams about him ever since the attack.

She had even drawn pictures of Jonathan Crane recently because of her vivid dreams. It was strange, but it made Sam more and more interested in her mother's work place. She knew Arkham Asylum had many secrets behind its dark walls, and she had also seen how some of the doctors treated their patients at Arkham.

The doctors at Arkham used everything and _anything_ to try to cure their inmates. They used everything from electric shocks to a whole lot of medications, but none of it ever worked. Most of the criminals would just end up escaping again and then get badly beaten by Gotham's famous Dark Knight. It was the same thing every time and none of Arkham's staff really cared. No one ever really cared for criminals.

Sam chewed a little on her eraser as she stared at her masterpiece. It was just a sketch, but it was neatly drawn with some shading here and there.

Sam then looked out her window. It was already becoming dark. The sun was slowly fading, moving down the horizon. She could see the bright colors of her room start to fade into dark shades of grey.

She placed her sketch book and pencil on her dresser and flopped onto her bed. Her eyes were becoming heavy as she took one last look at the window. The sky had quickly turned dark and the sun was completely gone. She noticed that dark clouds were beginning to form across the sky, but thought nothing of it. The sun had magically disappeared into the night as the sky turned black and cold.

Sam started to feel the cool night air nip at her skin from the opened window. She shivered slightly and wrapped a blanket around herself to warm up and placed her head against one of the soft pillows on her bed. Her eye lids slowly opened and closed from lack of sleep.

Her sharp ears listened closely and she could tell that the T.V. was on down stairs. Her mother most likely forgot to turn it off when she left because of an emergency at work. The sound of the T.V. down stairs made Sam even drowsier and she couldn't take it anymore. She needed to get some rest. Her eyes slowly began to close and Sam drifted slowly into a deep and blissful sleep.

* * *

That is, until her dreams began again.

Sam sat with her legs crossed underneath her as she looked across a huge golden cornfield. It was dark, but she could still see the old red barn towards the far right.

She was sitting on a large rock wondering how she had gotten there in the first place. Sam could see the large area filled with corn stalks. She slowly and carefully slid down the rock she had been sitting on and landed neatly on the rough earth. She ran a hand through her hair as she felt wind blow into her face. Her eyes scanned the sky as she noticed the white and bright full moon rise above the dark cornfield. She then saw a flock of crows fly across the sky, screeching and crowing as they flew by.

Sam could hardly see a thing in front of her as she peered into the dark cornfield. She slowly made her way to the red barn with curiosity burning inside of her. Once she got to the barn, she traced her tiny fingers against the wooden red door, feeling the rough texture. Her finger nails gently scraped the wood as she tried to pull open the door. It was locked shut. She heard a sudden rustle in the cornfield behind her and as she quickly glanced over her shoulder she saw a few corn stalks move in the darkness. She knew she wasn't alone anymore.

Instinct told her not to follow it, but Sam couldn't help but to chase after the thing that ran into the cornfield. She felt excited, running through the tall stalks of corn as she got closer to the figure that was running away from her.

"Come back!" Sam shouted after the figure as she kept chasing it. She was losing her breath from the cold night air that swirled around her as she tried desperately to gain speed.

The figure was _fast_. It moved through the corn field with speed and grace, dodging every corn stalk in its way. Sam moved quickly, but the creature was getting further away from her and disappearing into the darkness. She was struggling to keep up.

All of a sudden the figure had disappeared just when she reached a clearing with no corn stalks. The only thing that Sam could clearly see was a scarecrow hanging on its perch.

Its stitching was filled with straw and it had a creepy smile carved into its mouth. It hung on its pole like a dead man with its scrawny figure and long arms and legs.

Sam needed to rest. She panted like a dog as she tried to catch her breath. She had turned away from the dead looking scarecrow and was now on her knees gasping for air.

She never saw the scarecrow move, but _it did_. It dropped down to the ground and held a sharp sickle in its hands. In one swift motion the scarecrow grabbed Sam and pushed her against the pole behind her. She was shocked.

_"Scream for me Samantha. Scream until your throat bursts!"_ It spoke with a demonic voice that Samantha recognized. The scarecrow brought its sharp sickle to Sam's neck wanting her to scream, _needing_ her to scream.

Sam could feel the sharp cold blade against her warm neck, but she held on to her courage, reminding herself not to give in to his demands.

"No." Sam replied strongly as she saw the hatred growing in the scarecrow's clear eyes. She knew that her answer was not going to please him and she bit her lip trying to calm herself down.

Although she knew she was shaking, she refused to scream for him.

_"Foolish girl! You will pay dearly for disobeying me!"_ The scarecrow's voice said as the last thing Samantha saw was her own reflection in the sickle's blade and the bluish green eyes peeking through the scarecrow's mask.


	6. Taken

The Brave One

Chapter 6

Taken

* * *

The rain started pouring outside, and it hit hard against Sam's window as she sat up from her bed. The rain was starting to enter her room, soaking her carpet floor. Sam then remembered that she had left she window open when she had fell asleep.

She was now sitting on her bed wide awake from her horrible nightmare, rubbing her neck as she could still feel the cold blade of Scarecrow's sharp sickle pierce her throat. It all seemed too real for words.

She could still see the bluish green eyes that peered at her through Scarecrow's mask and the reflection of her surprised face as Scarecrow brought his sharp sickle down and chopped her head clean off. It was the first time she had been killed in her dreams and honestly it really did scare her.

It frightened her that someone would want her dead, but she reminded herself that it was all just a dream. It was just a horrible nightmare about a scarecrow.

Maybe she was obsessed about this whole thing and she just needed to forget about Jonathan Crane. Yet, she couldn't forget him. She tried her hardest to forget, but something told her that she needed to find out more information about him. It seemed crazy, but she had to do it someway, somehow.

Thunder and lightning reminded Sam that her window was still wide open. She quickly stood up from her bed and walked up to her window.

Rain hit her hard in the face as she saw lighting flash across the sky. She immediately pushed her window down with a loud thud.

The rain continued to hit the window as another flash cut through the clouds. Sam wiped her sleeve against her face to dry off and then turned back to her bed.

Her feet turned cold as she sat back down on her bed and wrapped a blanket tightly against her skin. She stared out the window again. The storm came down on the city like a wet paper bag, covering it with its bright, white lighting and booming thunder, almost like it was sad and angry at the same time.

Oddly, it calmed her to watch the rain. She almost felt herself fall back to sleep again, but the reminder of her nightmare kept her awake and alert.

Usually she wasn't scared of silly things like nightmares. In fact, she hardly ever _had_ any nightmares. It was also very strange to her that she would suddenly have terrible nightmares all because of a man she barely knew.

Sam glanced at her alarm clock towards her left. It read 11:04 pm on its red screen. It was really late. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep again. So instead, she got up out of bed along with her soft blanket still around her and walked down the stairs.

She walked into the family living room and plopped down on the couch to watch T.V. The 11'o clock news was on and Sam began to watch it with drowsy eyes.

"It is said to believe that there was a huge break-out of inmates at Arkham Asylum tonight as an explosion had occurred inside the building." The reporter known as Jack Ryder explained as he appeared the screen. Sam suddenly became tense and quickly turned up the volume on the T.V. Her grip on her blanket tightened as she listened in to Jack Ryder's story.

"It happened around 9:00 as a guard had reported that the famous villain, The Joker, had placed a bomb in the warden's office and set it off in order to escape the Asylum. It was caught on tape by a security camera." Jack Ryder clarified. The T.V. screen flashed to Joker, who was laughing like a maniac as he ran out of the building along with other inmates. Sam's eyes scanned the screen for Crane, but the T.V. switched back to Jack's face.

"At this time we don't have any further information on the situation. So let's go back with an update on the weather." Jack said as he ended his urgent report. Sam turned down the volume on her T.V. and ran a hand through her hair. She now knew why her mother left for an emergency at work and she was now worried. Her mother might not be coming home tonight.

Sam turned off her T.V. and walked over to her kitchen phone. She brought the phone to her ear and tried to dial her mother's cell, but there was no dial tone. Sam sighed with frustration and hung up the phone realizing that the line was dead. The storm must have knocked out a power line. She walked up to her front door and noticed that the door was unlocked. Her mother would never walk out of the house without locking it first, especially since she had left Sam alone in the house.

Sam quickly locked the door and began walking back up the stairs to her room. She had tried to turn on the light switch by the stairs, but it wouldn't turn on. Sam sighed irritably and continued to walk up the stairs, assuming the power had gone out. She walked down the hallway and was surprised to notice that there were muddy foot prints leading up to her room.

She stood in front of her bedroom door nervously as she reached her hand out to touch the knob. She knew she wasn't alone anymore. Her hand slowly and cautiously turned the door knob and opened the door just a crack.

When she peeked inside, there was nothing there. Nothing was out of place. Her room had been left untouched. Sam was now confused, she knew someone had to be here. _Who could have made the muddy tracks on the floor?_

The thunder clapped outside and lightning flashed, causing Sam's room to instantly light up. As the storm roared outside, Sam stood at her door way wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her.

She had then felt a sudden grip on her shoulders. She quickly spun her head around and was greeted with a terrifying, but familiar voice.

"Hello Samantha." Scarecrow greeted casually into her ear, like she was an old friend he was visiting.

Sam was speechless. She couldn't believe her eyes. This had to be a dream. Scarecrow swiftly turned Sam around and forced her to walk down the hallway with him. He spoke calmly to her, letting each word stick to her mind.

"I have been thinking Samantha. Scarecrow spoke behind Sam as he walked with her towards the stairs.

"I have been thinking, and frankly I think I should teach you an important lesson on fear. Don't you?" The Scarecrow stated not really expecting an answer. He placed a hand under Sam's chin and turned her head to face him. He was expecting to see fear in her eyes, but instead found that they looked back at him with confusion and a strange interest, almost like she was curious to see what he was going to do next.

Sam just blinked her big eyes up at him. She knew she had to do something.

She tried struggling, but before she could get away, Scarecrow pulled her back into his arms. For a thin man, he was pretty strong. Once she realized that struggling was getting her nowhere, she stopped moving.

Then she saw two more men wearing a black masks walking up the steps. They looked like they were some of Scarecrow's henchmen as Sam could tell that these men worked out a lot. They looked brawny with their muscles showing through their black short-sleeved shirts. One of the men turned his head towards Sam as he walked down the hall. He walked up to Scarecrow and began talking to him.

"So, is this the girl?" The man asked as he pointed to Sam. Sam just continued to stand there as she looked up at the two henchmen.

"Yes. She will be my new _test subject_." Scarecrow said with emphasis on 'test subject'. He wanted Sam to feel nervous and let her fear grow until he took her to his hideout. He knew that fear needs time to fester in order for Sam to feel the full effects. So he was going to take his time with her, letting it all sink in slowly.

"No. I refuse to be your test subject." Sam finally spoke as she attempted to struggle against Scarecrow's strong grip again. She definitely did not like the situation she was in and she glared back at Scarecrow as he grinned right down at her.

"You don't have a choice, Samantha." Scarecrow replied calmly and sprayed a strange gas into her face. Sam closed her eyes and started to cough. Her world had turned black and the room seemed to swirl around her.

She fought, trying her hardest not to faint, but then began falling forward.

She hit the floor with the sound of thunder booming around her. The lighting flashed and her vision faded into darkness once more.


	7. Curiosity

The Brave One

Chapter 7

Curiosity

* * *

Sam woke up with a terrible headache, her head throbbed and she could barely see two feet in front of her face. She sat up from where she had slept and tried to figure out where she was now. Her mind buzzed around her with many questions. _Where was she? What happened? Was she dreaming again?_

The last thing she remembered was the strange gas that had knock her out unconscious. Sam figured that Crane probably used fear toxin on her and she blacked out because of it again. That most likely made it easier to transport her to a new location. Yet, she didn't understand why Crane had kidnapped her in the first place. It wasn't like she was important or anything. She was just a regular teenage girl._ So why torment her? Was it maybe because of her mother?_ This was all very confusing for Sam and to top it all off it was extremely dark in the room she was placed in. She needed to get out of here.

The floor had felt ice cold on her knees and it painfully scrapped against her soft skin as she tried to get up. Her legs didn't seem to work anymore and her arms had been forced behind her back.

Sam felt trapped. There was nothing she could do. She tried to scream, but duct tape had smothered her cries. She looked down at the dark floor helplessly. All she could do now was sit in the dark and wait.

Sam was at the mercy of a mad man. A horrible chill crawled up her spine as the realization slowly started to sink in. Her heart reached her throat and she gulped to try to push it down. Goosebumps ran all across her arms as she began to become very scared. It hit her like a ton of bricks.

She was going to be Crane's next victim, a little guinea pig who would undergo horrible experiments from this mad and _twisted_ man. She was going to be murdered with her worst fears and there was nothing she could do about it.

She was beginning to feel anxious, like her world was crashing down around her and she was helpless. Unlike her mother who was always so strong and brave_...Oh God her mother_.

Sam had remembered what she saw on the news. Her mother could have been dead or in the hospital for all she knew. She missed her mother. If only she had been more careful. If only she hadn't been curious about Crane. _If only..._

If only she hadn't been so stupid._ How could she be so blinded?_ She should have seen the signs. There were signs that were slapping her right in the face telling her to get out of the house. They were all right there in front of her, screaming for her attention. Like the phone line being _cut_, noticing the door was _unlocked_, the power being _out_, the _muddy foot prints _near her bed room door. All the red flags were flying everywhere yet Sam still didn't do anything about it. It was all because of her stupid curiosity. Her damn curiosity...

_Maybe she was just an idiot, a plain old idiot girl. Or maybe..._

Maybe Sam was crazy. She was crazy for thinking that Crane wouldn't harm her because he was a human being, crazy for pitying him, _crazy for caring about him. _

Sam still remembered the quote by Carl Jung again. _"The healthy man does not torture others. Generally it is the tortured that turn into torturers."_ Maybe Carl Jung's quote wasn't true. Maybe Crane had a wonderful family who never abused him and he still became a criminal. Maybe he killed and hurt innocent people not because he was abused as a child, but because he just simply _likes it_. Sam didn't know what to believe anymore. Her curiosity was going to take her sanity away or worse, get her killed. This was her fate and she could do nothing about it.

Just when Sam had thought that it couldn't get any worse, a dark figure moved into the room. Sam could barely see the figure, but she could hear the footsteps inch closer and closer to her. She assumed it was Crane.

The shadowy figure stopped right in front of her. Sam bit her lip in anticipation. She had to be strong and brave like her mother. So she would show him no sign of fear. She turned her head up to the maniac, ready for her demise.

_"Hello Samantha." _The shadow said. The lack of light made it difficult for Sam to see the figure's face, but she could already tell it was Crane. His tall, skinny body gave it away the second he walked in front of her. He pulled the tape on Sam's mouth off and she gave out a small cry. Crane just smirked; there would be plenty more crying and screaming after he got done with her.

"What do you want with me?" Sam asked bluntly, even though the answer was obvious.

"You will be my new test subject. I have needed to test my newest fear toxin on someone suitable for a long time now." Crane answered, while crouching down to Sam's level. She could now see his face much more clearly now. She realized he wasn't wearing his mask and his sharp blue eyes could cut her like butter.

"I told you I wasn't going to become your test subject. I refuse." She spoke stubbornly, while staring directly up at his icy blue orbs. She had to remain strong, like her mother would have done.

"You're just a foolish girl. You don't have any say in the matter. You can't hide away from your fears and I will pick them _apart one by one." _Crane said along with a small smirk. He couldn't believe how naive this girl was. Didn't she know that he was the almighty god of fear? Or did she need a reminder?

"I'm not trying to hide. I just want to understand." Sam stated in a small whisper. She lowered her head to the ground, not wanting to look at Crane anymore. Well at least she finally got her wish. She finally got a chance to speak to him, to understand where he was coming from. Maybe this situation wouldn't be so bad after all.

"What are you trying to understand?" Crane questioned. Part of him just wanted to gas the girl and be done with it. He only needed her to test his new toxin. He used his old toxin on her the night he kidnapped her and the effects of it caused her to faint again. Now he was sure the old formula for the toxin was obsolete. Hopefully the new formula would have more desirable results. The other part of him wanted to find out what made this girl tick. She seemed normal enough, but he wanted to find what was beneath the surface. The girl was almost too normal.

"You, I want to _understand_ you. I want to know more about you." Sam confessed still looking down at the cold floor.

Crane just stared down at the young, silly girl. _How could she be serious?_ No one has ever said such a ridiculous statement to him before in his life. She doesn't understand anything and he would never let himself open up to such a foolish girl. After all, he was the one who usually got into people's minds, definitely not the other way around. Now he wanted to destroy this girl from the inside out.

"Very well, I'll teach you then."

_Oh, I will teach you._


	8. Gone

The Brave One

Chapter 8

Gone

* * *

Miss Steller was having a long, terrible night. The explosion had surprised everyone and caused a lot of damage. Fortunately, most of her colleagues that were injured from the explosion were immediately taken to the hospital for treatment. The rest of her colleagues weren't so lucky.

She thought that she had everything under control, but in reality she didn't. The Joker and a bunch of other inmates had escaped and were probably causing havoc everywhere in Gotham now. It was a tragedy. She would even call it a d_isgrace_.

Miss Steller refused to accept it. Joker had played her like a fool. He was planning to escape Arkham the whole time.

The Joker had pretended to be ill and fooled security into taking him to the Medical Facility. The second he was taken out of his cell, he had sprayed Miss Steller and another guard with Joker toxin.

Luckily, Miss Steller had quickly held her breath before she could inhale any of the deadly gas. She was grateful to be alive. The other guard unfortunately didn't make it. Joker ran off into the Warden's office, breaking out other criminals along the way. He had somehow managed to detonate a bomb in the building without anyone's' knowledge. It was a massive explosion.

All those inmates were long gone now. All that hard work had gone into the crapper and worst of all there was nothing that she could do about it. There was no way that she could rewind and fix everything. She and the rest of the Arkham staff had been fools and allowed all those criminals loose on the world. They had failed. They had all failed. Even though they had tried everything imaginable to cure the filth that plagued Gotham, it still wasn't enough. _It was never good enough._

Miss Steller's hands tightened their grip on the steering wheel. She was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to get home to her daughter. Her wind shield became overwhelmed with pouring rain as she rushed to get home. She knew she wasn't going to get much sleep tonight, but maybe the sight of her daughter would calm her down and ease her mind.

She never wanted to leave her daughter home alone anyway. Especially now since there were insane criminals running around everywhere. Miss Steller's family was the single most important thing in her life. Family meant everything to her. To her, it was first priority.

The rained poured harder and lighting flashed across the black sky. Miss Steller quickly parked her car in the drive way. She sat in her black truck and took the keys out of the ignition. Her eyes opened and closed from lack of sleep as she walked up the drive way. She was way too exhausted to chase criminals tonight. She was relieved to finally be home again.

Miss Steller placed her hand on the door knob and twisted it, just wishing it would automatically open. Unfortunately for her it was locked. She cursed with frustration as she dug in her purse for her keys. She should have known it would be locked.

She always locked it whenever she went out of the house, especially when her daughter was home alone. Gotham wasn't exactly the safest city in the world. So it became a habit for Miss Steller to lock the door whenever she left the house. She also had a security alarm set as a precaution in case someone decided to break into her home. However, the alarm had been malfunctioning recently, causing it to become useless. It made her nervous to leave her home unprotected, but she had a busy life and had no time to tamper with a silly alarm for a few hours. After all, she had a daughter to feed.

Miss Steller dug her hand in and fished out her keys. The storm roared on and wet strands of her hair had clung on to her back. She jammed her key into the slot and opened the door. She was glad to get out of this weather.

Relieved with finally being inside, she closed the front door and set her purse down on the wooden coffee table. The entire house was dark and quiet. Miss Steller attempted to turn on a lamp, but nothing happened. The power was out._ That figures_.

She took off her black coat and hung it on one of the kitchen chairs. Then she slipped off her work shoes and threw them in the closet. Miss Steller couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew something was definitely off. The house just seemed too empty to her and way too quiet. Maybe she was being too paranoid. Jeez, she has only been in the house for two minutes and she was already suspecting something. She should really just stop worrying about every little thing. It was causing her some serious stress. Besides, her daughter always did say that she needed to lighten up more.

Miss Steller slouched up the stairs. Her feet began to hurt and she was just ready to fall into a warm bed. As she got to the top of the stairs, her head turned towards her daughter's bed room. She noticed that the door was opened just a crack, tempting her to take a peek._ It wouldn't hurt to check on Samantha, would it? _

She knew that her daughter hated it when she checked on her at night, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Especially, considering the fact that just a week ago her daughter was attacked by one of Gotham's most famous criminals.

Miss Steller crept slowly up to Samantha's door. When she got up to the door, she felt her foot step in something squishy.

Slightly disgusted, she looked down at her foot. What she saw surprised her. _There were muddy foot prints all over the place. _The whole hall way was covered with them. Miss Steller was confused. Her daughter was always a bit of neat-freak. In fact Samantha would always clean the house while she was at work. It was one of her chores. _So why would she track muddy foot prints all over the place_? More importantly, _why would she go outside in the pouring rain? _It didn't make any sense.

Now Miss Steller was even more suspicious. She took a peek into her daughter's bedroom. Everything seemed normal enough. She could see that her daughter was sound asleep under the covers of her bed. Miss Steller smiled, relieved to see that her daughter was alright. However she wanted to be absolutely sure.

She stepped into Samantha's room. Once again, nothing looked out of place. All of her daughter's artwork still hung on the walls of her room. Not a picture out of place. Miss Steller walked towards Samantha's bed. She could now clearly see the lump under the covers. The lump looked strangely stiff.

She moved over to the side of the bed and placed a hand on what she believed to be Samantha's shoulder. However it felt oddly soft and fluffy. Miss Steller's heart pounded in her chest as her suspicion was quickly turning into pure panic. She ripped the covers off the bed. Instead of seeing her daughter sleeping comfortably in her bed, she saw three pink and brown pillows plop onto the floor.

_Miss Steller couldn't breathe_.


	9. Pain

The Brave One

Chapter 9

Pain

* * *

Crane had planned everything perfectly. He had made sure to buy himself some time before Miss Steller figured out that her daughter was missing. It was fairly easy for him to sneak into their home and take Samantha, and then make sure most of the evidence of him being there was concealed.

He actually thought it would be more difficult, but he was certainly not complaining.

Samantha was an interesting girl. She had more spunk than he first figured. Crane had been hoping for the girl to be a little more terrified at his appearance and he'd figure that she would more afraid of him after he had attacked her back at the Asylum.

Her reaction disappointed him, but at the same time made him intrigued. It had been fascinating to Crane that the girl barely showed any signs of fear at his arrival in her home. Perhaps, some of her mother's loathsome traits run through her veins. Crane always did hate Miss Steller's spunk.

Hopefully, Crane could break the girl. Samantha did show some signs of fear when he had let her sit alone in the dark for a while. Yet, that was not enough for Crane.

Crane wanted Samantha to be terrified, to scream whenever his name was ever mentioned. He wanted her to cower in fear whenever he entered her room, to tense up whenever he spoke to her, and to panic whenever he touched her.

However, he could see now that it would take some time before he could tear her mind apart. So it was a good thing that he had plenty of time to spare.

Crane turned on the light bulb above Sam's head, ginning when he saw her jump slighty. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe full of his new fear toxin. Sam looked at him questioningly.

"I don't think that will work on me. It just makes me black out." Sam tried to speak with courage. She knew his toxin so far has only made her black out, but this time he had a needle. Sam couldn't stand needles.

She stared at the medical tool, trying her best not to look like she was scared of it. Sam knew that Crane would use her fear against her if he sensed that she was afraid of needles.

Crane's lip turned into a half smile, while Sam prayed he wouldn't see through her false sense of courage. His smile made her worry.

He held the syringe against his fingers and started fiddling with it.

"Well, my dear, this is my new improved toxin that I designed just for you." Crane snickered as he continued to play with the needle in his hand. Sam shuddered at the use of him calling her 'dear' and stared at the needle with dread, her eyes fixated on the item as Crane continued playing with it in his hand. She really did not want his toxin in her body.

"I see that you have a fear of needles, Samantha. Interesting, a lot of people tend to have that fear." He spoke amusingly. Sam was now nervous. _How had he seen through her so quickly?_

"You think you can trick me, but I have studied fear for a long time, Samantha. I know when a person is afraid. Did you honestly believe that I wouldn't notice that you were pretending to be brave?" Crane questioned as he got to her level on the floor. Sam just remained silent, feeling more nervous as he got closer to her with the needle. Crane just continued.

"However, I am slightly impressed with you, Samantha. Most people in your position would be kicking and screaming in terror by now. It often makes it difficult to administer my drug. I usually have to strap the patients down in order to put the toxin them. Luckily, you are a lot calmer. But not for long, I am afraid." Crane told her through her ear. Sam was clenching her teeth, trying to keep her composure. She was starting to fully understand the danger she was in, but she could not let Crane get to her. Her mother would have wanted her to stand up to him. She watched as his hand reached for her arm and Sam suddenly knew what Crane was trying to do.

"Don't worry, Samantha. This will only hurt for a second." Crane whispered with excitement as he gently untied her arms. He looked at her face as he saw how she struggled with her composure. He knew she wouldn't fight him; she was trying to pretend she wasn't scared of anything. Nevertheless, he could tell that she was losing control. He was taking his time with her, drinking in her anticipation like fine wine. Though, he had to admit that the girl was a bit stronger willed than he had expected. She had the guts the stand up to him, but he would make sure to put her back down.

He held the needle above her right arm, but just before he could put the needle in, the girl said something he hadn't anticipated.

"You can pump all of the fear toxin you want into my body, but I will never be afraid of you." Sam said with confidence. She had to keep verbally fighting him back; it was the best way to stand up to him. Kicking and screaming would get her nowhere, but if she kept talking to him then maybe she could keep herself alive longer, or so she thought.

Crane got angry and squeezed Sam's arm tightly with his hand. Sam yelped in pain as he quickly yanked her up off the floor. He pushed her into a nearby wall and roughly pulled her chin up to look at him. Crane looked at her with anger burning in his blue hues.

_How dare she stand up to the master of fear like that?_ He would have to teach her a lesson.

He held the needle right on her neck and Sam tried to quickly push him away, but she was too weak. He held her chin so that most of her neck was exposed and growled into her ear.

"_You will scream until you throat bursts."_ Crane spoke with venom in his voice as he plunged the needle into her neck and listened to her cry in terror for the rest of the night_._


	10. Fighter

The Brave One

Chapter 10

Fighter

* * *

Sam had never been so terrified in her life. A few seconds of Crane's toxin and she was already on her knees crying in terror. She saw things, horrible things that made her want to _vomit_.

One of the first things that she saw was her mother covered in blood and screaming in agony. It was only a hallucination, but it felt so real to Sam. Her mother kept crying out for her and Sam completely broke down crying on the floor. Sam knew somewhere in the back of her mind that it wasn't real, but it still made her really distressed. Seeing her mother dying was one of Sam's worst nightmares.

Crane had just sat back and enjoyed watching Sam trembling on her knees. At one point he had asked her what she was seeing, but Sam couldn't answer. The hallucination was too strong for her to turn her attention away from it.

The toxin consumed her like a virus. She could barely breathe, let alone think clearly as her heart pounded wildly in her chest. The pain and terror continued till morning and Sam was exhausted. Crane walked up to her and spoke to her after the toxin had made its way out of her system.

"Let this be a warning to you, Samantha. If you keep talking back to me, then I will make you suffer much worse than you had tonight. Understand?" Crane stated as he crouched down to her level. Sam's hair covered her face as she continued to look down. Anger began boiling inside of Sam, but she decided it was best to hold her tongue. Instead, she continued to look at the floor and slowly nodded her head in response. However, Crane was not pleased with her response.

He grabbed her chin and forced Sam to look up at him. Crane stared into her eyes, interested in searching for emotions, especially for fear.

Instead, he noticed Sam's anger and defiance etched onto her feminine features. Her eyes narrowed at him as she clenched her teeth, which was something that Miss Steller would typically do. She also sat up straight as he saw her tighten her hands into tiny balls and her knuckles began to turn white. Crane was a little taken back by her body language. Many of his patients would normally cower in fear and try to turn away from him, but Samantha had locked eyes with him and didn't even flinch at him. Crane was awestruck; the girl had still managed to stand up to him and his tactics. It was impressive, but Crane already knew how to deal with people like her. It would take time, but he would eventually break her. He held her chin firmly as he spoke to her.

"I would prefer that you look at me when you are responding to a question. Do you understand all that I have said? If you cooperate, I won't make you suffer that severely." Crane repeated, once again searching the girl's features.

"Yes." Samantha hissed at him as her anger was becoming more obvious. She wasn't ready to put her tail between her legs just yet. Crane was slowly getting annoyed with her constant defiance.

"Good. Now that the toxin has worn off, I would like to ask you some questions. I want you to answer them to the best of your ability." Crane explained as he pulled out a notepad and a pen. Sam was appalled. She couldn't believe that he was seriously going to ask her questions after the horrible experience with the toxin he injected into her. However, she really wasn't prepared to take another shot of fear toxin to the neck.

"Ok." Sam replied quietly as she resisted the urge to furiously lash out at him. Sam had to admit that she was afraid she would get punished if she was disobedient again. She knew that she wouldn't be able to take another dose of toxin after already going through it once. So it was best if she just did what he asked her to do, at least for the time being. Besides, it was only a few questions.

"Then we shall begin. Let's first talk about your experience with my toxin. The toxin creates hallucinations to whoever ingests it. What were you seeing under its effects?" Crane asked in anticipation for her answer. He really was interested to find out her inner demons and more importantly if they had anything to do with him. He usually asked most of his patients this after their first dose with his fear toxin, if they had even survived it at all.

"I'd rather not say." Sam answered cautiously. She became even more appalled that he had asked her that question. What person asks that kind of question anyway, _a therapist_? Sam couldn't tell whether the man was interrogating her or trying to give her therapy. Either way, she did not want him to know her fears.

"Samantha, there is no need to keep things from me. Please describe to me what you have seen or else I will have to give you an extra dose to help you with your memory of it." Crane said with amusement in his tone. He almost wanted the girl to misbehave, so that he could hear her lovely screams again.

"Fine, I will tell you." Sam sighed knowing she was beaten, but the war was far from over yet. "I saw my mother." She said simply, trying not to go into any more detail than what she had to.

"Go on." Crane pushed for her to continue. Sam was starting to get emotional.

"My…My mother was shouting and covered head to toe in blood. She was trying to get my attention and I was paralyzed. She kept screaming in pain." Sam described as she suddenly felt her eyes starting to water.

"So that explains why you were sobbing under my toxin's influence. Losing someone you love is a common fear among most people. I assume you are fairly close to your mother?" Crane probed further. He was interested to know Miss Stellers and her daughter's relationship with one another.

"Yes, I was always close with my mother." Sam replied, trying not to cry from the memory of her mother and how she may never get to see her again.

"What about your father? Were you also close to him?" Crane asked. He had never heard of Miss Steller's husband before, _if she even had a husband_.

"I never met him before. He left my family before I was born." Sam spoke, once again turning her head down to look at the floor. Crane stirred a bit in his seat, he had something in common with the girl. His father had also left before he was born.

"That is rather unfortunate." Crane commented blankly with memories of his childhood coming to mind, while putting down notes about his patient.

Sam was silent. She hadn't expected him to make a comment like that, but she doubted it was sincere. He was probably trying to get her guard down, trying to make her feel comfortable enough to spill her guts out. Well, she wasn't going to fall for it. Her mother had taught her better than that. After a few seconds, she looked up and faced Crane.

"Are we done yet?" Sam said with irritation, just wishing the man would give up and leave her be.

"Yes. That is all for now." Crane stated as he put the notepad back into his pocket and stood up to leave. He turned back to address Samantha one last time.

"Don't try to escape. You'll be punished severely." Crane warned, and with that he turned and left Sam alone to the darkness once more.

She sobbed for hours.

.


	11. Faith

The Brave One

Chapter 11

Faith

* * *

"It's been a long time, June." The concerned Commissioner Gordon spoke as he took another sip of his coffee.

"It has been far too long, Jim." The ex-cop, Miss June Steller replied. Her hair tied up in a messy bun and her eyes sore from lack of sleep. "I am sorry that we had to meet up under these circumstances, but I can't trust anyone else."

Jim Gordon had been surpised when June Steller had called him. She had told him that she had wanted to meet him at a small cafe in a quiet part of town, and now here he was, wondering why his old friend had called to meet him.

"I completely understand, June. It's no problem. I don't mind helping out an old friend." Jim spoke as he gave her a genuine smile. "Now can you tell me why you called me here?" The man spoke kindly, trying to figure out why June would call to meet him in a coffee shop at four in the morning. Miss Steller looked at him gravely and then out the window.

"Jonathan Crane has my daughter." The woman told her friend in low voice, making sure nobody around them was listening in. She kept staring out the window, unable to look her friend in the eye.

Jim Gordon was shocked, his eyes widened at the sudden news. For a second he couldn't believe what he had just heard her say.

"W-what?" That was the only thing the commissioner could manage to say. He was speechless.

"You heard me. He took her." She said, trying to keep her voice from shaking and drowning her sorrows in a sip of coffee. "He is going to kill her. You have to help me I...I don't know what to do, or… who…to turn to…" Miss Steller sobbed for a few seconds.

Jim politely handed her a handkerchief from his pocket to dry her eyes. She refused to take it, but thanked him for offering.

"Listen, June. I will try everything in my power to bring your daughter home safely. Ok?" Gordon inquired as he gently put his hand on hers.

"Ok, but how?" Miss Steller questioned him, feeling a tear drop slide down one of her cheeks. She had trusted Jim ever since she first met him when they were both cops. Yet, she was still a little skeptical that Jim would be able to find her missing daughter.

"I will try to contact Batman. He will bring her back home." Jim explained, putting full trust in the Dark Knight's capabilities.

"I don't know, Jim. What if…she is already-"Miss Steller started to whisper.

"No. Don't think like that. Your daughter is a tough girl, she will be ok." Gordon cut her off, worried that his friend was losing faith already.

"You're right. She is a tough girl. I am sorry. I just feel so scared right now, I can't imagine what my daughter is going through right now." Miss Steller spoke sorrowfully.

"I know. Just please have a little faith. Can you do that for me?" The man pleaded, hoping that he could calm his old friend down a little.

"Alright, I will try" Miss Steller responded, still continuing to stare out the window and thinking about her daughter.

For a while, the two old friends sat and drank coffee in silence. Gordon could remember the first time he met June. Gotham had been a mess back then and most of the cops were being corrupted. During that time, Gordon had been fighting tooth and nail to strive to be a better cop. He wanted to protect the city from danger, but he never expected to meet someone who also held that same passion. That was when he met June. He knew June was the toughest woman around, but she always seemed to have a good heart and a smart head on her shoulders.

He had never seen June really cry, until today. June was always good at keeping her emotions intact, but now she was falling apart right in front of him. His heart was breaking just looking at her.

Slowly, Miss Steller turned towards her old pal.

"I really hope she is ok, Jim." She said as he saw tears dripping down her face.

"Yeah, I hope so too." Gordon spoke along with an added thought.

_God, I really do._


	12. Family

The Brave One

Chapter 12

Family

* * *

When Crane had left the room, Sam was relieved. She was finally away from him, which would give her time to figure out how she would escape.

Unfortunately, the room that Crane had trapped her in was locked up tight. As far as Sam could tell, there were no windows or vents in the room that would aid her in escaping. There was only one way out, which was a solid, metal door.

The door had barely any light coming through, and Sam already assumed that Crane had locked it. Her heart sank, as she realized that Crane could come through the door at any moment. With fear starting to bubble inside her, she quickly looked around to see if there was _anything_ in the room that she could use to escape or defend herself with.

Her eyes scanned the darkness, searching for a weapon, a pen, anything that she could use to defend herself against Crane. But, once again came up with nothing.

She let out a deep sigh. Crane probably already predicted that his patients would attempt to escape, so he made it completely impossible for anyone to even try. Sam was disappointed, but she couldn't help but to admire the way that Crane was always thinking a few steps ahead. It was almost as if he could actually read a person's mind. No wonder he was an expert in psychology.

Feeling hopeless again, Sam decided that she could take the time to think about what her and Crane had talked about.

She had found it odd that Crane had asked her questions about her family. It was understandable to ask the question about her mother, since losing her mother was one of her worst fears. But, why would he then ask about her relationships with the rest of her family? _Why would he care anyway?_

It didn't make sense to her. She didn't understand why he was suddenly probing into her personal life. _Wasn't he just planning to use her to test his fear toxin?_ Or perhaps, she heard him wrong the night that he took her.

Regardless of Crane's reasons for delving in her personal life, it had brought up some bad memories for Sam's family. She had told the truth about her father leaving her family before she was born. It never really affected her as much as it did to the rest of her family. Yet, she had always been curious about her father. When she was young, she would ask a lot of questions about her father and would often wonder what he was like.

Her mother was no help at answering Sam's questions about what he had been like. Her mother would usually just go off ranting about the fact that he had left her to take care of two children alone and would often get angry about it. Sam realized that her mother really hated her father for leaving their family, and mentioning him around her was a big mistake.

When she did speak of him, her mother had always told her that her father left to be with another younger woman. However, Sam felt like there was more to it than that. How could you just abandon your family without ever contacting them again?

Her older sister wouldn't even talk about it with her. Often times, her sister wouldn't even answer her when she asked questions about what her father was like. She knew that her sister felt really hurt about their father's actions, _but didn't Sam have the right to know about her father?_

All of it caused Sam stress and eventually she stopped bothering them about the subject of her father. It really didn't matter anyway. She had gotten along fine without a father. In a few ways, her mother had been like a father figure in protecting her and in providing for the family. Sam figured that she didn't really need him.

Of course, her mother did have a love interest at one point with a partner that she worked with, when she was first working as a cop. But, like expected, it didn't work out that well. It was mostly due to the fact that they worked at the same place, and they were also partners. Her mother thought that it distracted her from work and that it was better off that they'd just stay friends. Sam thought it was unfortunate, since they had both seemed happy together and he was a really nice guy.

_Now, if only she could remember what his name was…wasn't it something with a J?_

…Well, she couldn't remember his name, but he was a very nice man.

After a while, her mother had quit her job as a cop and began working as guard at Arkham. They were more than happy to hire her, of course. Sam never knew exactly why her mother had quitted her job as working for the GCPD in the first place, but she figured it had something to do with working with her partner. Her mother would of course, avoid any questions asked about that situation too.

Sam felt some comfort in thinking about her family. It made her forget about the horrible position she was in. However, it made her miss her family. She really missed her mother. _Was her mother even looking for her?_

Sam wished that she was, because it was her last hope at escaping Crane's prison. Hopefully, her mother could find a way to save her.

_Perhaps Batman would come to the rescue?_ She didn't know. All she knew was that she had to find a way to survive this. She was more than aware that Crane was completely capable of killing her if he wanted to, which made her more desperate for a way to escape. At least she still had some hope.

_Or maybe not…_

Maybe she had thought too soon because suddenly the door creaked open and light had flooded the room. The light blinded her and Sam's heart raced as she looked to see the figure in the door way. Maybe Batman had come to save her after all…

Sam continued to stare at the figure, hoping and almost even _praying_ that it was Batman who was coming to save her and take her home…

_...If only she was that lucky…_


	13. Counselor

**Hello people! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, since it is a bit longer than what I usually write. It is one of my favorites because it involves a lot of Crane. ;) Enjoy.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 13

Counselor

* * *

Jonathan Crane had left the room before he could question Samantha further about her family. He had paced around in the halls to recollect himself.

He was shocked that he had something in common with the girl. It was unbelievable that this plain ordinary girl had been abandoned by her father before she was born. She seemed like it didn't really affect her as much as it affected him when his own father had abandoned him and forced him to have a hellish life with his overly religious grandmother.

_Oh, yes…That did bring up some memories…_

…Which was exactly why he had to promptly leave Samantha, before he could interrogate her more about her personal life. It had been a habit of his to ask patients about their history and how their fears had been brought out. So it was nothing new for him to hear stories about family issues.

However, he had been completely thrown off by what Samantha had told him. He had expected her to have said that her family was fairly close to each other and that she had a good relationship with her parents, since she seemed so fearful at the thought of losing her mother.

Instead, she told him that her father had left her and her family, just like his father had left him.

So now they had something in common with each other, which was something that Crane detested. He hated it because now he wouldn't be able to talk to Samantha about her family without being reminded some of his memories about his history with his family. His history with his family had been absolutely god awful…

They had all abused him, _every last one of them_.

His grandmother abused him both emotionally and physically when he had lived under her care because of her delusions about religion. He was convinced the old hag was completely evil.

While his mother had the nerve to just leave him and _even_ had another child, his step-sister, with a different man. She had forgotten about him, and created a new family. Of course, his mother hadn't left her second child, like she had left the first…

…And that leaves his father, who was just an asshole in general in Jonathan's opinion. His father had left before he was born and that was all there had been to say about him, which had still left Jonathan to be abused by his witch of a grandmother.

Crane had felt disgusted about what they had all done to him, and he almost felt some envy towards Samantha.

The young girl definitely had a better family than what he had when he was growing up. At least she had a mother who cared about her. Jonathan didn't have _anyone_.

He began to rub his temples in frustration as he stood by the young girl's door. He knew that he would have to finish their discussion at some point, but he needed to get out of the room to compose himself for a bit.

The memories clouded his mind and he needed to expel them away. He still had work to do, after all.

His research was becoming more important. He had planned on making a fear toxin that would finally get rid of the dreaded Batman for good. He needed information from Samantha before he could use it on Batman. This time he did not wish to make _any_ mistakes.

Crane's hand began to reach for the handle on the door and smiled at the thought of what he had in store for the young girl.

She would crumble eventually at his tactics of using fear to control her. Her defiance was only temporary and she would fall just like all of his other patients. He was going to enjoy making her a puppet under his stings. Perhaps, she was already anticipating his return…

He had opened the door to find the girl sitting on the ground where he had left her. She had been squinting her eyes up at him, trying to get a better look at him through the light.

Crane was amused. The girl actually thought that he was someone else. As if anyone else was ever going to be coming through her door…

"What's wrong child?" He taunted with a grin. "Had you been expecting someone else?"

The girl just looked towards the ground and he heard her curse under her breath. She must have been disappointed at seeing him return so soon.

"What was that child? I can't hear you when you mumble." He taunted again as he closed the door and walked over to her shaking form.

He grabbed her chin to look at her face. She immediately shivered at his touch, which was exactly what he wanted her to do. However, instead of trying to pull away from his grasp like he expected in her fragile state, she just continued to stare back at him with her curious eyes.

As he studied her appearance, he realized that she was very plain looking. The girl had brown hair and eyes, with light skin. Nothing was out of the ordinary about her appearance. She had just looked like a normal average person, but Crane knew better than to judge her by appearances.

"Look at me when I am speaking to you." Crane spoke dangerously. The girl obviously hadn't learned any manners.

Fortunately, she had obeyed and continued to look up at his tall and lean form. He smiled as he praised her. She was certainly showing some progress.

"Good girl." He had said, once again in a taunting manner. He had patted her on the head and pulled out a sketch pad to take notes with. Crane had to admit that he had wished for her to still put up a little _more_ of a fight against him, but he wasn't complaining. Her obedience just made it easier for him to use her for more experimentation. Pe_rhaps, she had given up?_

"What do you want with me now? Haven't you done enough?" Her voice had sounded irritated.

Ah, and there was her continued rebellious nature, which was typical for someone her age. He knew she wouldn't have given up this soon into their progress. At least, she wasn't spineless like other patients.

"Now Samantha, don't worry. I am only trying to get a better understanding of what kind of person you are, just like how you would like to understand me." He answered her back with fake sincerity in his voice. "Would you mind if we discussed more about your personal life?" He questioned politely, this time taking a gentler approach with Samantha.

"Why do you keep insisting on asking me about my personal life? I do not wish to tell you any more than what I have already told you." Samantha spoke defensively.

Well, the girl was certainly a good actor at pretending that she wasn't afraid of him. Such a shame that he had already seen through it.

"Why are you getting so combative with me Samantha? I only wish to help you." Crane lied, wondering if the girl would continue her defenses if he acted kinder.

"Help me with what?" She questioned, obviously confused. along with that odd look of curiosity written on her face. He continued to hook her into a false sense of security by trying to get her to open up a little more.

"Why, I want to help you with your fears of course. You must have a lot of them, considering the fact that your father had abandoned you before you had ever got the chance to meet him." Crane continued as she looked up at him questioningly. "So now you are afraid of losing the rest of your family and being abandoned by them." Crane tensed up a little at the remembrance of his family, but quickly regained composure before Samantha could notice.

"Is that why I had seen a hallucination of my mother dying?" Samantha asked, clearly interested.

"Yes." He answered the girl back, almost happy that she was interested in recognizing her own fears.

"Why should I trust you to help me overcome my fears?" She asked, quickly turning suspicious at his willingness to _help her_.

He could fix that.

"Well, _it is_ what I specialize in, Samantha." He spoke, trying to gain her trust in him. "Why do you think I had given you the toxin? I was trying to help you face your fears, to overcome them by exposing you to them." He smirked when he saw her perk up at his words.

"Well…that does make sense...but-"

"Of course, it does. I am a psychiatrist after all." He had cut her off, trying to manipulate her more. "I promise that my only intention is to help you." He told a half-lie. _Maybe he was trying to help her in a way?_

...Though, he quickly dismissed the thought.

"But what about the other people you treated?" She questioned, still not completely convinced. "Didn't they end up dying because of you?"

"Yes, but they were also very bad people, Samantha." He half-lied again. Some of the people he had experimented on were past tormentors from his childhood, while others had been criminals. "They had it coming."

"Well, why were they bad people?"

Well, that was something that he hadn't expected her to ask. She was a curious one, wasn't she...?

Crane quickly tried to come up with a lie, but ended up with nothing. He decided to reveal a little about his childhood, in order to invoke sympathy, but still at the same time it was somewhat lying.

"Well, a long while ago, they had hurt a young boy by bullying him." He took note of the look of sadness in her eyes as he continued to tell her his story without completely giving himself away. "Yes, they had done all sorts of horrible things to him…" Crane trailed off partly because he had trouble discussing his childhood. Not that it really mattered if she knew about it, since she would most likely end up dead once he was done with her.

"What kind of things did they do to him?" She asked. He had to admit that the conversation had turned against him, since he had to get into person details about his childhood, but it was worth attempting to get Samantha to open up to him. She could even reveal secrets about her accursed mother that he had grown to loath in Arkham and then he may even be able to get some payback.

He had _relished_ at the thought.

"It is a long story." He started, drawing her in with his choice of words. "The boy was abused by them, every single day, for the majority of his life. They would beat him and call him names…" Crane thought back to the name that he was mostly given to him as a child, which was _scarecrow_. It had been the name he would use later to get his revenge on all the people that had tormented him in his life. He tensed up as he continued. "They would steal and try to burn his books, and sometimes they had even succeeded."

"Oh…" The girl sounded sorrowful as he filled with a steady rage.

"They were the scum of society and they would hurt anyone they touched." Crane gritted his teeth as he seethed. "…People like that are so hateful and cruel that they don't deserve to live."

"Everyone deserves a chance to live." Her small voice came out as Crane grew angry at her foolish belief.

"No…they don't." He said more to himself than to her. "…And if you would have met them, then you would have thought the same as I do." He lectured her.

The girl was silent. Her head tilted downwards and normally Crane would have punished her for not looking at him when he was speaking. However, for once he had let it go. He was more emotionally charged about the discussion of his childhood.

Not wishing to say more about his painful experiences, Jonathan turned and walked right out of the door once more. If he had looked behind him, then he would have seen the sad and painful expression Samantha had on her face.


	14. A Little Luck

The Brave One

Chapter 14

A Little Luck

* * *

Sam had been shocked by what had occurred during her conversation with Crane.

_What the hell had just happened?_

One minute, Crane was talking like he had the control, and the next minute he nearly has a mental break down right in front of her. Sam didn't even know _what_ exactly happened?

She wasn't entirely sure, but she had figured that Crane had been messing with her during most of the conversation. He had tried to get her to trust him, but Sam didn't really buy it. Her mother had taught her how to pick out a liar.

_Besides, don't criminals usually lie?_ She was pretty sure that Crane was lying about telling her that he wanted to help her get over her fears. However, the part about the story with the young boy who was bullied sounded really convincing to her. _Though he could have been lying about that too_, she reminded herself.

She had to admit that Crane's anger was very frightening. During his story telling, his fists kept clenching at his sides and his mouth had turned into a straight thin line.

He obviously had not been much of a happy camper either when Sam had decided to open her big mouth and argue with him.

If only she hadn't told him her opinion on the way that she thought that everyone deserved a chance at living. Just because someone had done horrible things, she felt it was never justifiable to_ kill_ a person. That was called _revenge_, not justice.

Crane had it all wrong. He shouldn't have done the things that he did to those people, even if they were bad. He didn't have the _right_ to hurt people.

But Suddenly, Sam had remembered something. Crane had gotten so angry, that he had quickly left room. So maybe…

There would be a_ chance _that he had forgotten to lock the door! Yes!

She could be wrong, but it would be worth a shot. Then again, Crane was very good with the small details. He probably wouldn't forget to lock it, and Sam was most likely a fool for thinking that Crane would be _that_ sloppy. He was a criminal master mind; he would definitely remember to lock her door.

But, then again he had been emotional when he left the room.

Sam hadn't pegged Crane to be the emotional type, but she did notice that he had lost his cool while speaking to her. Of course, it figured that the only emotion he would reveal to her was his anger, which was very frightening. He had been practically seething with hate! Sam was happy that he had left; otherwise he could have tried to harm her.

"Maybe in his emotional state he had forgotten to lock my door." She said to herself thoughtfully.

Of course, there was only one way for her to find out for sure.

Sam willed herself to get up off the floor. Her legs protested against it, but she pushed herself anyway. She had to get to that door…

As soon she stood up and stretched her legs, she had taken another look around the room. It was mostly empty, except for one little object that had caught her eye. Her eyes landed on a sketch pad that was lying on the floor.

_Wasn't that Crane's note pad?_ She asked herself, as she bent down to pick it up.

Part of her debated on whether or not she should open the note pad's cover. Crane had obviously dropped it and left it behind without noticing that it was gone. He must have forgotten about it.

Sam traced her index finger on the rings that held it together. The note pad held a lot of information within its pages. Her curiosity was burning…

She opened it slowly, a smile forming on her lips. All of the information she could ever want at her fingertips. Though, she assumed that Crane hadn't wanted her to see what was written about her, but Sam couldn't help herself. Her eyes hungrily scanned the notes that were written about her.

_Patient Information:_

_Gender-Female_

_Age-17_

_Session One_

_Patient had exhibited signs of fear, after she was injected with new formula. The formula was successful._

He had injected her with a new formula? Now that she thought about it, it did make sense that he would create a new formula to test on her. When he had gassed her, his toxin made her black out. Once he had injected her through needle though, she had been hallucinating things. He probably changed his toxin formula when she didn't respond to the previous toxin, which did make sense.

_Patient has an acute fear of needles._

Sam was surprised that he had picked up so quickly on her discomfort around needles. She thought she had been hiding it pretty well.

_Patient had a hallucination of a loved one dying. I suspect she may have suffered from separation anxiety or abandonment issues during her childhood._

Sam didn't have separation anxiety, did she? She wasn't sure how Crane had already picked up on her fears, but she knew that she had to stop giving information to him.

_Appearance of patient has not significantly changed from her first dose. When frightened, patient gets defensive and is stubborn in giving out information. _

He was _damn right_ that she was stubborn. She didn't want to give Crane any more information than she had already revealed. Sam knew that Crane would use her fears against her if she'd let him.

Well, that had been all that he had written about her, as far as she could tell. She was slightly disappointed that there hadn't been anything else that was written in the note pad when she had flipped through more of the pages.

Crane had known more about her, than she had thought. Sam had to be extra careful when speaking to him next time.

She placed the pad back on the floor where she had found it so that Crane wouldn't be suspicious. Now, there was the issue of the door…

Her eyes glared at the metal door. _You'd better not be locked_, she thought to herself as she walked up to it. Her hands touched the cold handle, and felt a shiver go down her spine.

_What if Crane was standing right behind it? _She was having second thoughts now. Maybe she shouldn't do it…

No, she had to do it. She couldn't chicken out now. She was almost at her freedom. This was now or never.

Her hand slowly turned the handle on the door…and it opened.

Her heart raced, expecting to see Crane standing there with a smirk placed on his lips. However, this time she had been lucky.

There was no Crane in sight! She savored her small victory by smiling and walking out into the long hallway filled with similar metal doors.

_Where was she? _Sam questioned as she studied the metal doors.

For some odd reason, she felt like this place seemed familiar. The metal doors, the narrow hallway…_Had she been here before?_

However, instead of dwelling on her location, she started to walk down the narrow hall, her feet giving a small echo as she stepped on the cold floor…


	15. The Missing Girl

**This is yet another chapter in Crane's point of view. Please Enjoy. :)**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 15

The Missing Girl

* * *

_The normally cool and collected man known as Jonathan Crane…had nearly crumbled at the hands of a mere young girl._

Crane was disgusted with himself. He should've known better than to describe his childhood to that girl. It had caused him too much pain to relive his past, and the look on her face while he told his story had only added _more_ fuel to his fire.

The worst of it was that he wasn't sure if he had even gained the girl's trust during their discussion. The girl had been suspicious the whole time, and she had even the guts to verbally disagree with him and his methods…

_Oh, she would pay dearly for that._

In fact, it had been a little discerning that she didn't take his bait. He was normally successful at luring his patients into a false sense of security. It had made it more satisfying when he could turn the tables and betray his patient's faith in him.

_But, Samantha was a different case. _He had reminded himself as he walked down the dark hallway, trying to compose himself once again.

Though, she was interested in what he was saying, she had not been fooled by his lies. She had been suspicious during the whole conversation, which was rather unfortunate. Now, he was forced to figure out a new tactic to break her.

_Perhaps it was time for him to show her his mask? _Crane had smiled at the thought.

Yes…that would do just nicely. She had reacted to it before when he had first attacked her. However, he still somewhat felt like it was a bit too early for him to show his patient his mask. Typically, he would wait until he had the research that he needed from the patient. Yet, the way that Samantha had rebelled against him had made him want to consider using his mask…

However, bringing his mask into the mix too early may actually really harm his patient, and thus ruin his research... or he _could_ force Samantha to open up a little more to him if he had used his mask as punishment…

It was a difficult decision for Crane, but he'd chosen to go ahead with using his mask. It would be more satisfyingand he was willing to take the risk of losing his patient. After all, he wouldn't be able to get want he wanted from her if she continued to deny him information...

Using his mask and threatening her was his last resort at getting her obedience.

He quickly moved down the hall, getting excited at the thought of putting his mask on again. His patents seemed to really react to his mask, especially when they had fear toxin running through their veins…

_He would greatly enjoy seeing Samantha's reaction._

His lips twitched upwards as he had reached his destination, which was his small room.

He had created a room for himself, after he had discovered a lower basement level located underneath Arkham Asylum. It was the perfect place for him to use for his experiments. He had even created a chemistry lab that he could use to make his fear toxin.

Now he could start experimenting again, since the break out had been a big distraction for the bat and most of the police. They would be working for months, trying to round up all the missing inmates.

He wouldn't be bothered here. The Bat probably thought that he had escaped along with all the other inmates and was out in the city. Yet, he had only escaped temporarily to grab Samantha to get his revenge on Miss Steller.

His thoughts quickly drifted on the woman that he detested. Miss Steller had hated him from the beginning and feeling had been mutual for Crane as well. She would sometimes hit him with her guard stick, whenever no one was looking, and would refuse to give him his daily ration of food. The woman was basically a complete _bitch_ that needed to be taught a lesson.

And Crane had been more than willing to teach that lesson to her when he had killed her precious friend who had also worked as a guard at the Asylum. _You could say that she hadn't been too pleased with him after that incident._

Now, he could only imagine the look upon her face when she realizes that her daughter is gone.

Of course, she could only assume that _he_ had taken her, which made it even more gratifying for Crane.

He smirked at the thought of how Miss Steller would react.

_Maybe she'd have a complete mental break down. _He sure did hope so.

Crane had begun to feel more comfortable. He opened his door to his room and quickly rushed to his cabinet next to his bed.

His hands searched until he touched the rough material of his mask.

_Yes…_

A wide smile had stretched far across his lips.

_Samantha was in for a real treat. _He thought to himself as he brought the mask over his head and headed out of the door, eager to get back to his awaiting patient.

He wondered what her reaction would be. She had been rebellious and had not changed even _after_ he had injected her with the first dosage.

He'd figure her to be less resistant, but unfortunately she had insisted on giving Crane much more of a fight.

_Hopefully, my mask will make her more passive._ He had thought to himself as he made his way down the hall.

Crane had felt confident…Well, at least up until the point where he had reached Samantha's door…

_Shocked_ had been an understatement for Crane, once he saw Samantha's door wide open.

_How could this be? _He questioned as he rushed into the room to confirm his suspicions.

_The girl had escaped!_

Crane couldn't even fathom it. The girl had found a way to escape through the door, and he didn't have clue as to how she had even_ done_ _it!_

Whatever she had done, he was sure that the girl was now roaming around the basement of the Asylum, looking for an escape.

Crane began to rub his temples in frustration. He had to find her, before she could stumble upon the elevator shaft that led up back to the cell block of the Asylum.

If she had gotten up there, then he would never be able to catch her in time so that she didn't alert anyone to his presence in the basement.

_Not that anyone knew about his secret basement._

She couldn't have gotten far. He had only been gone for a few minutes. So there still was time to catch her.

Oh and when he caught her…

_The girl would be punished severely for her actions._

* * *

**I decided to make Crane a little bit clever when it came to his secret hide out... ;) After all, I feel like every villain needs a good _basement_ to hide in. Muahahaha. **

**Anyway, I have been updating a lot more since the The Dark Knight Raises is finally out. I am sooooo excited! So I felt the need to pull out more chapters for the story. It has been a lot of fun comming up with new and exciting ideas! I hope you all like it so far.**

**Of course, I will continue putting up as many chapters as I can before my inpiration dies. So don't worry, I am not out of ideas yet. :)**


	16. Caught Red Handed

**Here is chapter 16! Hope you all enjoy. **

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 16

Caught Red Handed

* * *

Samantha had been roaming around the maze of hallways for several agonizing minutes. After about ten minutes, the young woman had finally concluded that she had no idea where she was going. _In other words, she was lost._

The rows of metal doors had been identical in every hallway that she had encountered, which made it even more difficult for her to find her way around. Everywhere she turned; there had been the same metal doors that she had seen over and over again. It was endless.

What had frustrated her more was the fact that she felt like she had actually seen those same metal doors in another place before. However, she could not remember exactly _where_ she had seen them before, which had really bothered her.

Another thing that had really bothered her was her curiosity of what was actually _inside_ some of the metal doors. She was really, _really_ tempted to try to open one. Yet, she had tried to resist the urge.

_Though, it could be very interesting. _Her mind told her as she had stopped at one of the doors.

She had doubted that there would be anything behind the metal doors, since they were identical to the door of room that she had been placed in. Most likely, they would just be empty like her room was.

_One of them could actually be a way out. _Her mind had reminded her.

If one of them was the way out, then she'd be better off trying to open_ all of them_. Eventually, she would come across the exit.

Sam grinned at the thought of getting the chance to open the doors to peek inside. However, she still questioned if it would be a waste of time for her…

Oh, what the hell, she was going to do it anyway.

Her hands slipped immediately around the handle of the first door she saw. Excitement had filled every part of her body as she was desperate to see what was behind the mysterious door. It was almost like she was a detective, just about to solve her first crime. She was shaking with excitement once she had yanked open the first door …

…And surprise, surprise, there had been nothing. The room was completely empty.

She quickly poked her head in to check and make sure. Unfortunately, as she had earlier expected, the room was empty.

Feeling slightly disappointed, Sam quickly moved on to the next door closest to the one that she had already opened. And she opened the second door…

Yet, it had also been empty.

Soon, she was quickly opening every door that she could find, only to come up with the same thing every single time. All of the doors had been empty. Sam sulked.

She had opened all the doors she could find in the hallway and yet none had been the exit.

Feeling increasingly dissatisfied, she had shuffled on to the end of the hallway with the cool floor hitting against her toes. She grimaced at the fact that she hadn't been wearing any socks or shoes when Scarecrow had kidnapped her.

Still feeling the cold hit against her feet with every step, she suddenly noticed a door at the end of the hallway. It had been similar to the other doors, but it was separated by a rather large, gothic gargoyle sitting above its frame.

Sam smiled from ear to ear. This was the door that she had been looking for, a door that was different from all the rest.

_It must have something hidden behind it. _She thought to herself as she stood in front of its large and unique frame. Her hand had quickly glided over the handle.

The gargoyle looked viciously down at her figure, and almost made her too afraid to twist the handle to open it.

_Almost…that is…_

Curiosity had won over her fear, and she yanked the door open feeling eager to see what was inside.

What she had found had astounded her. Behind the door was a room, but instead of being empty, it had been filled with beakers, tubes and other objects that reminded her of a chemistry set.

It had been a lab, Crane's chemistry lab, to be exact. She had discovered Crane's lab!

Ecstatic, that she had found Crane's secret lab, she swiftly entered the room.

Her excitement got higher once she had entered Crane's laboratory. She quickly scanned around the room in complete amazement at Crane's ability to have so much knowledge in chemistry. Everything that was chemistry related was at her fingertips, beakers and all.

It was one of the most thrilling things that she had ever seen. Crane had lined several tables with all sorts of interesting objects, some of which she didn't even know the names to. She kept staring at the bubbling tubes and various other objects, until something even _more_ interesting had caught her attention.

Her brown plain eyes glanced over a tank in the corner of the room. It was decorated with a strange orange jack o lantern face on the front of it. She suspected that it was where Crane had stored his fear gas in.

Suddenly compelled to get a closer look, Sam walked over to the odd container.

She reached out her hand and touched the cool mental exterior and gave a small smile. It amazed her that Crane had been clever enough to create such a container.

Upon closer examination, she could easily see that Crane had marked the object with his own signature as the scarecrow. The design fascinated her; it had looked similar to his mask.

She traced her fingers around the design, wondering if Crane had put his signature on other objects in the room.

Sam pulled herself away from the decorated tank of gas and back up a little bit.

She jumped a little in surprise when she suddenly bumped against something hard, her back hitting it first.

_I hope I didn't knock anything off of Crane's table._ Her mind fretted over; worried that Crane might hear her if she broke anything in his lab.

She turned her head to take a quick look and immediately wished that she hadn't.

"Are you having fun, little mouse?" The Scarecrow said in an amused tone. Sam noticed that he had his mask on.

_Oh, shit. _She nearly mouthed as she jumped at the sound of his voice and turned to face him.

Her brown eyes were fully glued to his now masked form. She had seen him with his mask on before, but never like the way that she was seeing him now.

His face fitted the brown stitched burlap perfectly. The face leered at her, and it looked like that he actually wanted to _eat her_. It had frightened her so badly that Sam had accidentally backed up against the wall of the corner that she was in.

"How do you like my mask, Samantha? I had brought it out so that you could see it. Though, it is still such a shame that you couldn't see me in my full attire." He had spoken to her.

Sam just watched the stitching on his mouth move as he continued to speak, afraid that insects could come crawling out at any second.

"I see that you have found my laboratory. This is where I make my special concoction of fear toxin. You seem to have taken an interest in it. Would you like to try it?" He said as he moved closer to her shivering form.

Sam kept silent and became even more frightened when his face got closer to hers.

"Samantha, it is rude not to answer a simple question. Perhaps, you are too paralyzed with fear to even speak?" The man in front of her snickered at her quivering form. "Is it the mask?" He questioned as Samantha desperately tried to turn her head away from him.

The mask _had_ scared her. She had never been so close to it before, but now she could understand why so many people had been terrified of it. It had formed into his _damn face_ like it was a part of him. It was disturbing. Sam had never seen such a thing in her life.

"No. Don't turn away from me, Samantha. Let your fear take over." He spoke with irritation as he had grabbed her face and turned it back to face his.

Sam had closed her eyes in response. She refused to let him win.

"You will be punished if keep this up, child." He warned, while still holding her chin in place. His other arm was being used to box her into the corner.

She opened her eyes despite herself and stared into his blue eyes. She could see his bright blue hues peeking through the eye holes of his mask. He had stared back at her and his sharp hues were beginning to soften up a bit.

"Good girl." He praised her with a smirk. "If you continue to obey me, then I might not punish you for trying to escape." He spoke again to her.

She was terrified at the thought of being injected again, so she just nodded her head silently in response.

"That is good, you understand now." He gave out a light chuckle. Crane grabbed her arm and started guiding her out of the lab and into the hallway. He held on to her arm tightly.

Sam just flinched as his cool hand had touched her arm. She had allowed him to lead her back to her room without a struggle. She slowly becoming increasingly afraid of Crane as he had roughly shoved her back into the room she had started in.

He turned to her and shut the door with a loud thud. Sam just stood there waiting curiously to see what Crane had in store for her next.

* * *

**Aw, poor Samantha. She just can't help herself, can she? If only she hadn't been so damn curious, then maybe she wouldn't have gotten caught. Ah, well. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

** Also, no I haven't seen The Dark Knight Raises movie yet. So don't spoil it for me. I will be seeing it soon with my family, since they are all excited to see it. **


	17. Detective Work

**Warning: This is more of a filler chapter and it's a bit short. Just letting you know.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 17

Detective Work

Jim Gordon stood on the roof of the police station in the warm summer air. A slight breeze had blown through as he waited for the Batman to show up.

Gotham City was slowly coming to life as soon as the sun quickly went down and Gordon could see that the criminals were now out to wreak havoc. He continued to watch the ground below and noticed that someone was already _being mugged_. For someone like Gordon, it was just another regular day.

_Batman was going to have his hands full tonight…again. _The Commissioner thought to himself as he looked back at the signal that he had been shining in the sky.

Batman's symbol shone brightly in the night sky, like it had many times before. Gordon just sighed impatiently.

Looking for June's missing daughter had been more difficult than the Commissioner had first expected. He had his team searching for the young girl now, putting up wanted posters to help aid in the search.

However, Gordon new it was useless. The only lead he had was the muddy foot prints found in June's house, but it still wasn't enough evidence. _Anyone_ could have left those foot prints, and it was a waste of time trying to track down the person who made them.

_Anyone could have taken Samantha._

June suspects it was Crane, but Gordon had already searched all of the places that Crane usually uses as his hideout. Samantha had not been in one of those places…and neither had Crane.

Gordon had been at whit's end with this case and now he needed the Dark Knight's assistance.

He was the only person who could find out what happened to Samantha.

The Commissioner just stared into to the sky with his hands in his pockets. Something had caught his eye, when he saw something gliding on the roof tops. _He knew that Dark Knight was coming._

Suddenly, almost on cue, Batman landed in front of Gordon's stiff and tense form.

"Talk to me." He ordered. Gordon could already sense that Batman hadn't been in a good mood.

"I need help on this case I am working on. A girl went missing two nights ago, her name is-"

"Samantha Steller, the daughter of a guard that works at Arkham." The Batman had cut the Commissioner of police off.

"So you have already heard about it." Gordon had replied more as a statement than a question.

"I have already been tracking down some leads to the girl's whereabouts." The Dark Knight said calmly.

"Have you found anything?" Gordon questioned feeling hopeful.

"Not currently, but I suspect that Jonathan Crane has a hand in this. It turns out that Crane had not gotten along with Miss Steller while he was being incarcerated at the Asylum. I have suspicions that he may be trying to get revenge by kidnapping her daughter." He carefully explained.

"That's just his style." Gordon commented knowing that Crane loved getting revenge by screwing with other people's heads. He probably planned on breaking June by brutally tormenting her youngest daughter. _They had to stop him before it was too late._

"Don't worry Commissioner, I will find them." Batman reassured. Gordon had seemed more tense than usual; the poor man was rubbing his temples in frustration.

"I know you will." Jim replied while letting out a deep sigh and closing his eyes in attempt to get rid of his headache. "I just hope you find her sooner than later."

He waited for the Dark Knight to reply, but instead heard nothing. Gordon pulled his head up and saw nothing.

_Batman had quickly flown off in his search for Samantha Steller._

* * *

**So Batman is now looking for Samantha, **_**but will he find her? **_

**Oh, and The Dark Knight Rises is amazing! I won't say any spoilers, but it is good. You just have to see it. It will blow your mind!**


	18. The Punishment for Bad Behavior

The Brave One

Chapter 18

The Punishment for Bad Behavior

* * *

_The second the door slammed, Crane had locked eyes with Samantha._

She knew that she was in trouble, but part of her thought that it would be wiser to do everything that he told her to do. _If she pissed him off more, then he might kill her_. She wasn't willing to take the risk; at least, not while he was already _highly_ angry with her.

…_And boy was he angry! _She thought silently to herself as she examined his appearance.

His fists clenched and his eyes narrowed at her through his dreadful mask. After a closer look, she could see that his whole body was _shaking_.

No doubt, Crane had been angry with her escape. However, technically, it hadn't been _really_ her fault.

Crane was the one who left her door unlocked in the first place. She wondered if he had ever noticed…

Regardless if he did notice, she was slightly surprised he had made the mistake in the first place. _Wasn't he supposed to be an evil genius?_

It was sloppy of him. Yet, Sam was glad he had made a mistake. It showed her that Crane was capable in making slipups, and it helped her see that he was a lot more human than what he lead everyone else to believe.

Crane had faults just like everyone else. He just didn't want to admit them.

_He wasn't a monster. He is a human being._

Sam had been happy that she was finding out more things about him, since it could be helpful. She could then use it to her advantage and maybe attempt to escape again.

For now though, it was better if she just did what she was told. Sam was willing to do whatever it took to survive. _Maybe she could get Crane to trust her more?_

Though, it was a bit of a stretch, since she had been deliberately disobeying him.

Of course, that just made him angry like he was now, which made Sam wonder _what in the world was going to do this time?_

Well, she certainly knew it was nothing good. She could see the rage burning in his eyes and hoped that he wouldn't hurt her as he came stomping forward.

He seethed with anger and stopped right in front of her face.

They had been nose to nose with one another. Crane was staring her down, once again giving her the impression that he intended to _eat her and spit out her bones._

She knew something had been off about him when he had caught her in his lab. It was not just his mask; it was the fact that he was enraged with her, which made her so deeply scared of the mask earlier.

His hatred for her, made his mask seem completely scary. Before, it had just seemed more like a prop, _but now it became a part of his face._

The revelation frightened Sam.

_Right now, at this moment, she felt like she was staring evil in the face._

…_And evil stared back down at her._

Her heart sped up as he had smiled at her. It was then that she realized that she was in great danger.

She backed up form him as her feet seemed to move without her permission.

Panic was seeping in, consuming her quickly as the man followed her calmly with what could only be described as a _slasher smile_. _The kind that villain's wear on their face in horror flicks._

The mask looked as if it was amused by her actions as its mouth grinned from ear to ear._ It was revolting!_

He continued walking towards her, amused that she was trying to get away.

She finally felt her demise when her back hit the wall on the back side of the room.

_He is going to kill me!_ _This time, he will do it. _Her mind screamed inside.

She was done. He wasn't going to let her off easily this time. Chills went up and down her spine as she saw him step closer…and closer…and closer.

_Oh it was agonizing!_

Scarecrow had made one last step until her was right in front of her again. Her heart dashed around in her chest as he calmly brought his hand up to her face….

"What's wrong little mouse? Are you afraid?" That voice came out as his right hand had stopped in front of her neck. His hand was merely inches away from her throat.

_Is…is he going to choke me? _She wondered as her eyes quickly darted for an escape.

Unfortunately, as soon as she was going to tried to dart away from him, he blocked her in with his body.

_She was trapped with him…and he was going to choke her to death!_

"Oh, deeply sorry Samantha, but you're not going anywhere." He spoke darkly as tears started to drip down her face.

He was tracing his long fingers around her neck, torturing her with the anticipation of her demise.

She shivered at his touch and wished that he wasn't so close her. He had never been this close before. This fingers glide over her cheeks and touched some of her tears.

Suddenly, he had gotten closer to her. His mask brushed over her ear and his hands gripped her small shoulder tightly.

_Maybe he was going to eat her!_

Sam started to shake uncontrollably. Her body couldn't stop and she could feel the sweat bead on her forehead.

The anxiety continued to build inside her, threatening to explode at any second.

"Tell me what I want to know, otherwise I will kill you. He spoke with venom in his voice. His fingers wrapped around her throat and she shivered at his touch. "How did you escape?"

Sam quickly tried to think of a lie, but found that her mind was in a fog. She was too afraid to even speak, but she fought desperately to try to give him an answer.

"You…you left the door…unlocked." She tried to speak, but it came out weak and broken out of her mouth. She had no idea how Crane would react to her telling him the truth about the unlocked door.

The girl prayed that he wouldn't think that she was lying.

_The man actually believed her, but he still had not been pleased._

Sam didn't look at his face, but she could tell that he was fuming inside. He kept silent as his finger tightened around her neck.

She panicked and pleaded with him.

"Please…don't kill me." Her voice was weak and hoarse from the grip he had on her throat.

Scarecrow slowly loosened his grip and she was surprised that he hadn't choked her out yet. His face was still by her ear.

"If you ever escape me again, I will rip you open and let you bleed to death." He threatened with a growl and earned a small whimper from the girl.

He smiled, though she could not see it. Her tears continued to flow down her cheeks and were hitting his fingers as he held on to her neck.

He had broken her. She was falling apart piece by piece. All of her rebellion was shattered.

_Why couldn't she be as strong as her mother?_

His hand roamed over her cheeks, drying her tears, almost in a fatherly way.

"I won't hurt you." He said contemptuously. "I think this is enough punishment, for now, at least."

Sam felt a small ping of relief. A weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

He slowly gave her room to breathe again as he took a few paces away from her.

Her back had slide down the wall and she felt weak and defenseless as Scarecrow turned and walked in triumph out of her room.

She was left broken. He had finally conquered her.

The worst part of it was…

…That he didn't even need his toxin to do it.


	19. Depression

**This may also be a bit of a filler chapter, since it doesn't have Samantha or Jonathan in it, but it is specifically about Miss June Steller. I promise the next one will have Samantha and Jonathan in it. **

**Also, I would like to note that there will be a romance blossoming soon. It most likely will be in later chapters, but I assure you, the romance is progressing. You will soon see how it comes about and I hope you like it. It will still be a little dark and grim though, but it tones down a tiny bit.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 19

Depression

* * *

_The Depression, Agony, Guilt, and Sadness of losing a child…_

…_Was too much for any mother to possibly take._

All of these emotions had been wedged deeply in Miss June Steller's mind. Her pain was becoming too much to take. Yet, one emotion stood out against all the rest.

_..Anger…_

She was _very_ angry and not just with one person, but with many people.

Miss Steller blamed them all, Arkham, the police, batman, and of course Jonathan Crane, the man that she loathed more than anything on this earth. It was _his_ entire fault that Samantha was most likely dead right now.

Yet, she blamed the rest of them, for not doing anything to prevent Jonathan from taking her daughter.

Arkham was to blame for not being able to cure Jonathan Crane, but more specifically the blame should fall on Dr. Combs who was supposed to be treating him in the first place. Dr. Combs had failed to rehabilitate Crane. If only he had cured Crane of whatever damnable disease the psycho had, then Samantha would have never been kidnapped.

…_And she wouldn't feel so miserable now._

She was also angry at the Gotham City Police for being completely useless in finding her daughter. They were _so incompetent_, that they actually had to rely on a_ vigilante_ to search for her missing daughter who calls himself the_ Batman _and flies around on roof tops. _Ridiculous…_

_Miss Steller was glad she resigned. They were all so stupid!_

Jim Gordon has a good heart, but he was always bad at thinking things through…

_Batman can't be trusted_; it was as simple as that.

However, Gordon could never see that. He always believed in Batman, even though some people have speculated that The Dark Knight had been making the city worse, instead of making it better.

Miss Steller just didn't trust him, even when she was working at Arkham.

Sure, he would beat the criminals up and certainly has saved plenty of lives, but his _rogue's gallery _would always bounce back and try to harm the city again with yet _another_ insidious plot. It was the same thing every single time.

If Batman had really wanted to help the city, then he would have killed those psychopaths' years ago.

_That would have greatly helped the city in Miss Steller's opinion._

But honestly, who would trust a man who dresses like a bat?

Miss Steller didn't know why people put so much faith in The Dark Knight, for all they knew, he could be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode on the _entire city_.

…Just another villain to plague Gotham City.

As for Jonathan, Miss Steller hoped he knew a good doctor because he was going to need one when she got through with him. If he thought that his beatings were already bad enough…well, he had another thing coming.

She wasn't going to let Crane get away with hurting her youngest daughter. The woman knew that she had to do something, instead of sitting around mobbing about it.

_Maybe she would even try to search for Samantha herself?_

It was a bit of a stretch, but Miss Steller couldn't just leave her daughter's life in the hands of incompetent cops and a vigilante who dresses like a bat and glides on roof tops every night. She couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

Besides, a small part of her felt guilt over bringing Samantha to her work place the night that she was first attacked. She had brought her along mainly because she had been too afraid to leave Samantha alone in the house that night.

However, she did think it would be that big of a deal since most of Arkham had been locked up for the night. Usually, the inmates would be sleeping during the night. Also, they had some of the best security around, so it wasn't like Samantha wouldn't be protected.

Unfortunately, she had underestimated Crane's capabilities. He had quickly broken out and attacked her daughter before anyone ever noticed.

Miss Steller had figured that the escaped inmate had run towards the main lobby to escape through the entrance, so she went in that direction to cut them off. Yet, she had no idea that the inmate had been Crane and he had been trying to hurt her daughter.

…_That is, until it was too late._

When she had finally realized what was happening, she had rushed to get her daughter in time. However, Samantha had already been knocked out cold when they had reached her.

If only she hadn't brought her daughter in this mess in the first place, then maybe Samantha would be safe and sound at home right now.

_All of this guilt and pain..._

All of these feelings clouded her mind, and she was starting to get a terrible migraine from it all.

Miss Steller had missed her daughter dearly and couldn't bring herself to leave Samantha's room. She felt many tears come down her cheeks as she sat on her daughter's bed, her hand holding on to a photo of her youngest child.

_The pain of losing a child is a great pain indeed._

* * *

**Poor Miss Steller, she should have known that Crane was super dangerous. Oh well, this chapter had been more about Miss Steller and how she is handling her daughter's disappearance. I just felt like it was necessary to put a chapter like this in. **

**Well, I hope that you enjoyed it anyway.**


	20. Past Memories

**Hey, guys! This chapter has Samantha and Crane in it as promised, but it is from Crane prospective. There is also a small tidbit of Crane's past, which is of course a flash back. **

**Sam's and Crane's age difference is also brought up in this. I didn't make Crane's age too much older than Sam, but he is definitely older. I am making him more of a sort of mentor for Samantha, since in many of his adaptations he tends to enjoy teaching. I am trying to stay as close to the comics as I possibly can. Enjoy. **

**This chapter will also be a little bit longer.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 20

Past Memories

* * *

A young thin man laid on his bed in deep thought about what had occurred during his current encounter with his patient. He was an excellent doctor, trained in the psychology of fear and he was also a master chemist.

However, something had been bothering him about his recent patient.

Of course, yes, Jonathan Crane was proud of himself for breaking the girl's precious mind without using a hint of fear toxin. Yet, a small piece of him felt bothered by the fact that the girl had stumbled upon his laboratory, but that wasn't most peculiar part.

No, the peculiar part of it was when she explored his lab and seemed to have an interest in his fear canister. The girl kept touching the item like it was some kind of prized possession. Wouldn't any normal person just walk away and try to find a different escape route?

_Didn't she want to escape?_

The revered psychologist didn't understand it. The girl was showing very strange behavior, but that didn't excuse her attempt at escaping…or whatever she had been doing.

The man let out a deep sigh, while still wearing the mask he had used on Samantha earlier.

The girl had told him that she escaped because he had left the door unlocked. How could he make such a silly mistake? It was not like him to make mistakes…

…But still, a part of him had believed her.

Samantha would have been too scared to lie to him. Besides, he had been so caught up in finding a way to break her mind, which it was possible that he may have forgotten about locking her door.

If that is what happened, then he would be sure to never make the same mistake twice. He had remembered to lock her door up this time. Though, he doubted that she would try anything in her state.

Crane gave a small smirk at his achievement. Samantha had fought well, but in the end she had fallen just like all the rest of his patients.

Usually, it wouldn't have taken this long. In fact, he had planned to break her within a few hours of her kidnapping. However, now it has been nearly two days since he had taken her. Perhaps, he should feed her…?

Well, he had to still use her to test out his fear toxin. Plus, he was in the perfect hiding place, so no one would bother them for a while…

Why not? It wouldn't hurt for him to keep the girl for a little bit longer and if he was going to keep her, then he might as well feed her for the night so that he wouldn't have to do it in the morning.

The thin man got up off his bed and stretched. He was glad that he had set up a living space _way_ before he had kidnapped Samantha.

Crane walked over to his small refrigerator to retrieve a bowl of oatmeal that he had. It had taken him forever to convince a guard to bring him a fridge and other furniture. The guard had once been his assistant at one point, trying to earn a little extra cash for himself.

Lucky for Crane, the guard was greedy and wouldn't pass a chance to gain money. Of course, Crane didn't give him any money and had double-crossed the man in the end.

However, the guard had been useful in getting him the items that he needed to set up shop down in the basement of the Asylum…

_That is, until Crane had killed him._

Miss Steller had not been too happy about him killing her so called 'friend', but he thought that he was doing the woman a favor in some way. _Her guard friend was not as good as she thought he was._

He had killed her guard friend because he knew too much about the secret basement. Yet, it had also been a bonus for Crane to get revenge on the woman who made his life a living hell in Arkham.

_Everything had worked out in his favor._

He pulled out the food for Samantha and smiled. It really had been a brilliant plan.

Crane took off his mask and headed towards his patient's room. He grinned at the thought of how the girl would react to his return. In her state of mind, Samantha was very vulnerable. He wouldn't need his mask this time.

He opened the door and walked in. The girl had quickly crawled off to the corner, whimpering as she had hugged her knees.

The young man felt a small twinge of guilt, but quickly dismissed it. He had showed the girl some mercy when he had foiled her attempt at escaping. He could have killed her, but that would also mean that he would have to find a new test subject, which was something that may complicate his plan to generate a toxin for Batman. _He couldn't afford to lose his chance at that._

So for now, he would keep the young woman alive, which he didn't mind so much. The girl was the first person to ever get so close to escaping him, and he had to admit that she had turned out to be more interesting than he had first thought. Perhaps, she had grown on him a bit.

She had been the first interesting subject that he had. Also, he was slightly pleased at the fact that she seemed to have a curious interest in his work.

"Hello Samantha." He said as he walked over to the girl's shaking form. Crane reached his hand to move a strand of hair away from her tear soaked face. She didn't speak when he crouched down in front of her.

He examined the girl's appearance again. Something had reminded him of a memory he had of his past…or more like her appearance had reminded him of_ someone _in his past. _Someone that he wished he could forget._

Of course, Samantha didn't look exactly like her, but he couldn't deny that there had been some resemblance. The dark brown hair that was long and past her shoulders, her small figure and medium height…

_She had looked somewhat like Sherry Squires, a girl that had humiliated him in high school._

Samantha was much plainer looking than Sherry, but he couldn't help but to notice the few similarities. _For some reason, he had been becoming nostalgic lately._

The girl's _age_ had been around the same when he had killed Sherry and injured her boyfriend in a car accident only a few years ago. He had been 18 at the time when he had killed her and now he was 27 years old.

However, the memory was still fresh in his mind, regardless of his current age.

_He could still remember when he had found the courage to ask Sherry to go out with him…_

* * *

It had all started when he had a huge crush on one of the popular girls at his school…

_Her name was Sherry Squires._

She was beautiful in more ways than one. She had sparkling eyes, shiny hair, and of course, perfect skin. Sherry was beautiful in every way.

Jonathan thought that he had a chance with her. He thought that maybe someone could finally love him, but he was wrong…completely wrong.

One day, he had gotten enough courage to ask her out to a Halloween party. He figured he had a chance since she had broken up with her previous boyfriend named Bo Griggs…or so he thought.

"Oh, Jonathan I would love to go with you!" Sherry had said when he asked if she would go to the party with him. He thought that it was sincere.

Jonathan was ecstatic when she told him that she would go with him. He dressed up as a gladiator and she had dressed in a tight nurse's outfit.

She teased him with her flirtation and her tight fitting outfit. He should have seen through it.

"Why don't we go somewhere more private?" She seduced him as he sat on the couch with her.

He had gone along with it, letting her drag him to the basement of the house.

"Now what?" He asked in innocence. He had no idea what she had been planning, but he was excited that he was alone with her. His heart pounded in his chest when she had answered his question.

"Now, you kiss me, silly." She spoke sweetly as she touched his chest. Jonathan was surprised. He should have known that she was playing him for a fool…

Regardless, he leaned in, wondering if he could actually kiss her. He had never kissed anyone before, so he didn't know how to go about it.

He tried to kiss her several times, but he was clueless in how to approach it. However, it didn't really matter anyway.

Suddenly, while he was leaning in to kiss Sherry, a man with a pumpkin on his head appeared and scared Jonathan away.

He ran, fearing for his life as the pumpkin head chased him up the stairs and past all of the partying teenagers.

His heart pounded and he ran outside. The pumpkin head followed him and took off his head. Jonathan didn't realize that Bo Griggs had set this up all along.

Bo threw his pumpkin head at Jonathan and it hit him_ hard_ on the back of his head. Jonathan fell flat on his face and turned to see that Bo and Sherry were laughing behind him. It was a prank, they fooled him.

"What's wrong? Is the scarecrow scared?" Sherry taunted along with everyone standing behind her.

Everyone laughed at him. _It was the most humiliating thing that he had ever experienced._

_He would plan to get them back!_

…And he did plan. His plan was to dress as a scarecrow, the thing they mocked him with, and to scare them on prom night.

He waited patiently for them in the parking lot, dressed in his scarecrow costume. Jonathan was thrilled when he saw them both get into Bo's car. _It had been time to strike._

It had meant to be a harmless prank, but ended up turning into something _even better_ for Jonathan.

He jumped on the hood of their car after he set off the cherry bombs. They screamed and panicked when they had seen the water pistol he was holding.

Bo put the car in drive and Jonathan quickly got off the hood, eagerly watching the car swerve off.

Later, he found out that he done more than just scared them. Bo must have gotten into an accident, he was paralyzed from the waist down and as for Sherry…she was ejected from the car and thrown out the windshield. She was killed on impact.

_Jonathan was happy with that._

* * *

He had tried to forget the memories of his childhood, but for some reason the girl kept bringing his memories back. Crane didn't like that at all.

He continued to stare at Samantha's form. She was pretty, but not in the way that Sherry had been.

_Wait…why was he studying her appearance?_

He quickly took his calculating eyes off of her body and set her oatmeal on the floor in front of her. Her eyes stared questioningly at the object before her.

"You're…You're feeding me?" She asked in disbelieve. Crane could tell that she was weak.

"Yes." He answered still refusing to look at her.

"W…Why?" She stuttered, her voice coming out as a small whisper.

"Aren't you hungry?" He asked.

She answered by taking the food in her shaking hands. He quickly went to stand up.

Crane turned away from her and was about to leave her to eat her meal, but her small weak voice had stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Thank you." The soft voice from the corner spoke.

He went to say something back to her, but he quickly stopped himself from saying the words. Disgruntled from what he was about to say, he continued to walk out the door.

To think that he was _actually_ about to utter the words, "You're Welcome" was ridiculous.

_Maybe he was beginning to get too soft with the girl…_

* * *

**Well, there it is. I thought that a flashback into Crane's past was in order to help the readers who aren't familiar with Jonathan's origins. I might end up doing more in the future.**

**I hope you enjoyed the long chapter. Thank you for all of the nice comments. **


	21. A Small Act of Kindness

The Brave One

Chapter 21

A Small Act of Kindness

* * *

Samantha was shattered.

All of the confidence that she had about finding a way to escape was shattered…

_Into a million fragmented pieces…_

She was fractured, but not completely gone. He had shown her some mercy, but she knew that he was still incredibly dangerous.

He probably wouldn't show any compassion towards her the _next time_ he would come into her room.

She dreaded having him walk in again. In fact, the anxiety of having him return nearly stopped her from consuming the meal that currently sat in her lap.

It was cold, but the girl didn't care. Her hunger made her a lot less picky about what she was eating.

After all, oatmeal was better than _no meal at all_.

Samantha held the spoon in her hand, consuming every last drop of the cold oatmeal. She didn't know why Crane had decided to feed her, but she was glad that he did.

The girl figured that he was going to kill her, but she was pleasantly surprised when she realized that he had brought her food instead.

Even though she was grateful for his sudden act of kindness towards her, she also felt somewhat bothered by it. It was strange that he had been actually _nice_ to her after her little escape attempt.

_Why would he do that if he was just going to kill her anyway?_

Another part of her wondered why she had felt the need to thank him for his actions. He tortured her, broke her, and nearly killed her…_and now she was thanking him for it?_

What the hell was wrong with her?

She didn't know. Her mind had been a mess after he had punished her for trying to escape and invading his chemistry lab. Maybe she was just a mess…

…_And a tad bit insane._

She had to get herself together, but all her will power was gone now. He took it all away. Her strength, her confidence, her faith…he took it all…everything that she had. She felt powerless and she hated it.

Her fighting spirit was gone.

No one was going to save her. She had lost hope that anyone was even looking for her. If they were looking for her, then they probably would have found her by now…

_Batman wasn't coming…and neither was anyone else._

She sighed in misery as she sat in her little corner, trapped by her own thoughts and feelings.

Her eyes kept drifting in and out of sleep from being so exhausted. The girl had been worn out by all of the fear that she had been feeling for the past couple hours.

Her exhaustion was catching up to her and she tried to lie down on the floor.

She didn't want to fall asleep, but her mind and body were drained. Her eyes stared up at the door, trying desperately not to drift into slumber. She had to stay alert for Crane.

However she couldn't stop herself. The need for sleep was too strong to fight off. Her eyes finally closed and with a full belly, the young girl allowed herself to rest.

_...For the moment, at least._

* * *

_Of course, her moment of sleep did not last long._

Samantha felt rough hands started to shake her awake after about an hour of sleeping.

"Get up." Crane's stern voice had spoken. He started to shake her hard with his palm placed firmly on her shoulder.

The girl opened her eyes and was greeted with the sight of the irritated man. His light colored eyes examined her weak form with slight interest.

She just stared back and shivered at how close Crane was to her. His face was inches apart from her, searching for something. Her heart began to race.

After a few seconds, Crane grabbed her arm and pulled her up off the floor. She stood up with him, trying to compose herself.

"You're going to hurt me again, aren't you?" She spoke feeling weak. Samantha accepted the fact that Crane was now in control.

"No." He answered her back as he held her fragile wrist in his hand. She felt a twinge of relief wash over her.

She wondered what he wanted with her now. _Was he going to experiment on her again?_

"Where is my note book?" He asked her dangerously as he grabbed her chin. Her relief was gone and she was on edge again as she saw the anger flash in his eyes. _He really thought that she had taken his note book?_ "I won't hurt you, if you just give it back to me."

"It is…on the floor." She stuttered and motioned her head to its location. He let go of her chin and walked over to the object.

He calmly picked it up and put the note book into the pocket of his pants.

She thought he would leave, but she was sadly mistaken.

Instead, he walked back to her and grabbed her by the arm again. He pulled her by his side as he walked to the door.

_Was he taking her somewhere? _She thought as he opened her door to the hallway. The light blinded her for a bit and she looked at Crane questioningly.

He looked back at her wordlessly and then walked her out into the hall. She was a bit reluctant to follow him, which only made him more irritated.

"Let's go." He yanked her arm as he took quick strides in the hall. She struggled to keep up with his fast pace. He was practically sprinting.

Soon, after Crane had nearly dragged her down the hallway, they had reached their destination. It was a door similar to the one Samantha had found when she was trying to escape. The door had a similar gargoyle perched above its metal frame. The thing looked like a bad omen as it faced down at her. Samantha took it as a bad sign.

Crane opened the door quickly and pulled her along inside. He turned on a light switch and then closed the door back up.

Samantha was confused. _Why did he bring her here?_

Almost as if he had just read her mind, the man turned around to her and spoke.

"You're lucky that I am showing you some mercy, Samantha." He said as he began walking towards her. She was becoming frightened of his presence again. "Normally, I wouldn't keep an experiment for as long as I have kept you."

She knew that was most likely true. It was expected that he would try to get rid of his 'experiments' as quickly as possible to avoid getting caught.

"However, since you show such an interest in my work, I suppose that you can be of use to me for a little longer." He said as he looked in her eyes searching for a reaction.

_Oh, great!_ She thought sarcastically. She wished that he would just let her go. Hadn't he tortured her enough?

He caught a glimpse of her displeasure and smiled a bit.

"What's wrong? Isn't this what you had wanted?" He asked tauntingly. "I thought that you had interest in me? Or has your time with me dissuaded your interest?

She didn't answer him because she was lost in her thoughts. Somewhere deep inside, she could still feel the need to find more information. There was curiosity that was building inside her again…but now part of her questioned whether she should follow her curious instincts. It always seemed to get her in trouble.

_She never could seem to keep her nose out of places where it didn't belong._

Yes, she still held an interest in this man, despite what he had done to her. However, now she was getting wary of trusting her instincts. _Was the chance to acquire information really worth it? _Did she really want to know _anything_ about this man?

The answer came to her as a definite _yes_.

Her instincts were telling her that she needed to find out more about him. After all, she still didn't know why Crane had kidnapped her in the first place…and strangely she felt that it had something to do with her mother.

She had to figure it out.

While she was thinking, Crane looked at her with interest. He studied her as she was deep in thought.

"Interesting…You seem to have a strong thirst for knowledge." He spoke more to himself than to her.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by his voice and returned her attention back to him. Her need to obtain information was growing. She knew that he wanted her for something more than to just become his experiment. _Why else would he continue to keep her alive? _

He had even decided to bring her into a nicer room. She could even tell that the room had a bathroom at her far right. _Was he actually being kind to her?_

_No, that wasn't possible. Crane was not the type to be kind. _Her mind told her as she was about to open her mouth to ask him why he had moved her here. However, he had already beaten her to it.

"You want to know why I brought you here." He grinned down at her.

"Yes." She confirmed timidly, surprised that he already knew what she was about to say.

"Well, I thought that would be obvious. You're here because I have decided to keep you longer." He continued as he rested a hand on her shoulder. "You will be staying in this room for now on."

"What?" She muttered in confusion, baffled that he was placing her in a nicer room.

"Yes, Samantha. You will be staying in my room for the time being so I can keep a close eye on you." He said in slight amusement of her reaction.

The girl remained frozen, shocked by what Crane was telling her. She couldn't speak.

Crane just continued to hold her chin and firmly pulled her head back to look him in the eye.

"Don't think that this changes anything, Samantha. I am only keeping you alive because I still need to use you for my experiments." He spoke dangerously in her ear as his hand on her shoulder tightened.

Her body began to get tense, sensing Crane's growing anger. Fear started to grip her again as she wished that he wouldn't get this close to her.

"_You will not escape me again."_ He snarled angrily into her ear and she trembled at his voice.

His hand slid off her shoulder and he turned calmly away from her shaken form. Crane walked quickly out the door without another word, leaving Samantha to her suffering.

_Samantha just continued to stand there as she felt a horrible sensation crawl down her spine._


	22. Obsession

**Here is a good chapter partly on Samantha questioning her sanity. Muhahaha enjoy.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 22

Obsession

* * *

The chills continued to crawl down her spine long after Crane had left the room. Samantha was frightened by how quickly he'd gotten so angry at her again. She had still been shocked by the fact that he was allowing her to stay in_ his _room.

It was strange. _Why didn't he just kill her?_

It wasn't like him to act so kind to her. Maybe he was just playing with her, trying to work her into a false sense of security again?

No. It was something bigger than that. In fact, she had already established that his method wouldn't work on her. She knew Crane wouldn't be stupid enough to try the same trick twice, especially since it had already failed the first time.

So no, that was not the answer.

_So why was he keeping her alive?_

It was a mystery to Samantha. There had to have been a logical reason for why he was keeping her alive, but she just couldn't come up with an answer. Feeling frustrated and confused she sat on the bed to think.

Unfortunately, her mind was now stuck in a fog due to the terror that she had felt when Crane had spoken to her.

She had to calm her nerves, to think about something else,_ anything_ else.

Her attention turned to the bathroom. It was alluring in the fact that she could see a shower through the opened door. The shower invited her, begging her to step in and enjoy.

_She happily obliged. _

It was the most beautiful thing she had seen since she had been captured by Crane.

Quickly, Samantha raced in the bathroom and closed to door behind her, making extra care to lock it up tight. She didn't want Crane to ruin what little shred of happiness she had.

Her eyes stared admiringly at her salvation as the shower beckoned her to enter its massive glass door. She turned the handle and watched the hot water pour out, tempting her even more.

However, something had stopped her from throwing her clothes on the ground and entering the inviting shower.

A thought occurred to her and it wasn't very pleasant.

_Would Crane punish her for using his bathroom?_

Her heart started to race at the thought of Crane getting angry again. She didn't wish to be punished again…but the hot steam was so inviting…

She hadn't showered in so long. Maybe she was just being paranoid with Crane. He did leave her in his room…

Ah, what the hell, she was desperate for it.

In one swift motion, she took off her clothing and walked through, letting the warmth spread across her aching body.

The water cleansed her of her thoughts about Crane as she stood in peace. She washed away, clearing her body of his constant touching, making sure to wash the icky feeling away.

Finally, she got the relief that she was looking for, but she knew that she couldn't make it last long. She would eventually have to get out, so that _he_ wouldn't catch her.

Fear started to grip her again. The thought of having him getting aggressive again was enough to bring her back to her senses. She was only to give herself a few minutes in the shower and then she would have to get out.

Feeling disappointed, she washed herself with the water and some soap that she had found for only a few minutes longer.

When she felt that it was enough, she clicked the handle to the off position and reluctantly walked out of the nice shower. She dried off using one of his towels as she quickly got her clothes on and headed out of the bathroom door.

Thankfully, Crane had not been back when she was enjoying her shower and for that she let out a big sigh of relief.

She felt better, not to mention _cleaner_ too.

Samantha took the opportunity to take a look around the room, feeling bold that she had used his shower without him realizing.

The room was not large, but it still had a gothic charm to it, much like most of Gotham City's decoration. She wasn't particularly surprised to see that most of the furniture was in dark pastels.

Crane's bed had a black headboard, along with a simple grey comforter. The tables on either sides of the bed looked very old and were made of decaying wood.

…And of course, there were more gargoyles hanging on perches around the room. She noticed that one was even above the bed.

_Oh, how she loathed them._

She quickly took her eyes off of the disgusting creatures, and turned her attention to some paper siting neatly on his desk.

A smile tore at her lips and she walked to one of the tables by Crane's bed.

Oh, she was very happy. Not only did she get the chance to bathe, but now she could comfort herself in drawing.

_Crane wouldn't mind. _Her mind tempted her, especially when she saw a pencil lying nearby.

She reached for the pencil and grabbed a sheet of paper and quickly began drawing, letting her release all of her feelings come out on the page.

Her hand moved as she was deep in the peaceful moment, drawing up her pain and suffering.

…_Drawing her fears._

Everything went into the page of paper that she had. Her focus had been glued to the drawing, losing track of time, not even knowing exactly _what_ she was drawing.

All of her feelings went to the drawing, her pain, her confusion, her suffering. She did not hold back as her hand scribbled furiously away, feeling a complete sense of release.

Unfortunately, her finished product had shocked her.

She realized that she had not been paying attention to what she was drawing and it surprised her when she looked down at her paper.

It was a shaded picture of Jonathan Crane. _She had just drawn a sketch of Crane._

What…what was wrong with her? Why the hell would she draw _him_? Out of all the things that she could have drawn, she drew him instead.

She was convinced that something was wrong with her. _What in the world was her mind trying to tell her?_

Was she obsessed to the point where she couldn't function without thinking about him?

She didn't know, but it definitely disturbed her beyond belief.

Her hands started to shake as she quickly crumpled up the paper and threw it at the wall. She rocked back and forth as she buried her face into her hands.

She started crying, having a mental break down on Crane's bed. Tears flowed down her fingers, but she didn't care. The thought that she couldn't get him out of her head was absolutely horrifying…

She sat there for a long time, sobbing on her fingers.

Unfortunately, if she had taken her hands away from her face for just a second, then she would have detected the shadow watching her silently from the corner…

* * *

**Oooo…it is about to get good folks. Stay tuned. ;)**


	23. Blame Game

**Yay! I love keeping my chapters for this story short and sweet since it gives me time to make more chapters. So there will probably be a lot of chapters. Just for your information.**

**Also, wow. I didn't really expect people to like my story this much. I had mainly started this for fun and now it has turned into something bigger. Thank you so much for reading and letting me know all of your opinions. It is really helpful.**

**As for the comment on grammar mistakes, I have re-read the chapters and I agree with you. I hadn't noticed the mistakes before, but thanks to you, I can now fix them up. Yay! So thank you for taking the time to help me with my grammar. This is my first story, so I am glad that someone had pointed that out to me. Once again, critics are welcome and encouraged to criticize me. **

**Also, as you have already guessed, I love horror stories and I feel that suspense actually gives the story more horror to it…and this is why I will continue to use it in my stories. Muhahahahahahahaha!**

**Ahem. Sorry about that. **

**Anyway, back on the subject of this chapter. This is where things get a little messy with Samantha and Crane…well actually; let's just say it gets **_**messier**_**. I feel that it is better when characters evolve throughout a story because it makes things a lot more interesting, so that is what is happening in this chapter.**

**I hope you enjoy reading this.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 23

Blame Game

* * *

The man had quickly left the dazed girl in her room, remembering to lock the door behind him. He checked the lock twice by twisting the handle gently. It was important to make sure that there was no possible way that she would escape again.

_No, Jonathan Crane was not taking any chances this time._

He had allowed her stay in his room for the time being, so that he could keep an eye on her. The man had not anticipated to keep the girl in his possession for this long. _She was supposed to be dead by now._

In fact, it surprised him that he had made the decision to keep her alive in the first place. After all, it was jeopardizing his plans to get back at her ignorant moron of a mother.

However, he couldn't deny that the girl's behavior was intriguing. She was clearly interested in him and his work. Perhaps, that was his reasoning for keeping her longer?

_Yes, that was his reasoning._ Crane confirmed, while trying to reassure himself.

He had left the girl in his room to prepare a syringe of fear toxin for her again. His work was important and he was desperate to complete his research.

Crane needed to know if his new toxin would aid him in tearing Batman's mind apart, so that he could gain control of the city and hit back at society.

Samantha would help him, whether she realized it or not, she was aiding him in his fight for control over the city.

The girl would be the start of his great achievement, the start of all the wonderful chaos that he would soon inflict upon Gotham.

Crane smiled at the thought of using her. Hearing her lovely screams was something that he would enjoy thoroughly. He would savor the amount of time he had with her as much as he could and teach her what_ real_ fear feels like.

Oh, he was getting _excited_ as he entered his lab, smelling his chemicals bubbling in the beakers.

He loved that he could make her so afraid of him. It was almost addicting. The way he could just speak softly in her ear, and then she would shiver and shake with enormous fear…

…_Oh, it was lovely._

If that was how she reacted to him now, then he could only imagine how she would react to him with fear toxin running through her veins.

_So many beautiful possibilities…_Crane thought as he watched the beakers bubble.

Quickly, while trying to calm his excitement, he grabbed the closest syringe and started to fill it entirely with his dangerous toxin. _He would give her a higher dosage this time._

The man took his time in making sure that there were no air bubbles in the needle as he kept flicking his finger against it.

His hands practically shaking in anticipation to quickly rush into his room and stick her with the needle…

However, he resisted the urge to sprint back to his room and started to clean his beakers instead. Swiftly, he put them into the sink and started to wash them out, using soap and water.

He had always cleaned his area after he was done with it; it had been a bit of a habit for him. Memories of how his grandmother had always forced him to clean the house came back to mind.

_Oh, how he loathed that woman._

He didn't want to remember, but his mind kept drifting to the memory of his childhood, of his grandmother's abuse, while he cleaned his equipment.

…_A memory that he detested._

* * *

He remembered being a small boy, when his grandmother had started to get more aggressive with her abuse. Details of the memory were flooding in his head…

It was a beautiful summer day as he watched his caretaker take a calculating finger against the coffee table he had just dusted and cleaned.

Crane was only 10 years old. He bit at his fingers in anticipation as he watched the old hag study her finger.

He could see the sunlight coming from the nearby window, and could hear other children playing and laughing in the distance. They were loud, enjoying their fun while he had been forced to stay indoors watching the woman expectantly. The boy wished that he could trade places with the other children outside.

The woman studied her finger silently, for a long time, for what seemed like hours. Her finger went over the object a second time as he stood there watching, hoping that she was satisfied with his dusting. He stood on the carpet floor itching with anticipation...

_Unfortunately, the old woman was hard to please._

"There is still dust on this table!" The old woman had belched out at him as she showed him her fingers. He just stood there and flinched at her obnoxious and very audible voice. He had just cleaned that particular table for the second time, but she was _still_ not satisfied with him.

"You are a pathetic piece of Satan shit! You can't do anything right! Now, I will have to punish you for your sins…" She spewed at him dangerously as she threatened to hit him with her cane.

"No, please…I'll be good. Just don't make me go in there again." The boy's voice had pleaded. However, the woman had not bothered to listen. She spoke down to him again.

"We must purge you of your sins, and force the devil out of your system." She said calmly as she dragged him into a room.

"Don't worry boy, once I am done with you, Satan will no longer grip your soul." The delusional hag said, while grabbing a suit in the nearby closet of the room that they were in. Her wrinkly fingers wrapped around his arm tightly. "Put this on, child."

She had given him an old looking suit. It smelled god _awful_, like it had never been washed in its life...

...And of course, his grandmother forced him to put the horrible thing on. Threatening that she would beat him with her cane if he didn't.

Once he was finished getting dressed, she dragged him outside to a decaying church. The boy tried to plead with her once more.

"Please don't do this to me." He said as tears dripped down his cheeks. She ignored the pained look in his eyes and continued to drag him towards the horrible looking church.

"You must do this to be released from your terrible sins, child." The woman looked down at him as she spoke and pushed the small boy in the church.

He banged at the door, knowing what was going to happen to him next. The boy could see the crows on the rafters in the sunlight. There was no escape. He was trapped with the fowl beasts.

They looked at him mockingly with their beady eyes. Then, one by one they began to swoop down on him, talons stretched out. They were screeching and cawing as they attacked him ruthlessly.

He screamed and screamed, but no one heard him.

_No one cared enough to save him from his nightmare._

* * *

Crane held a hand to his head, trying desperately to forget the painful memory of his childhood.

When he had finally composed himself, he had quickly shut the water off in the sink and walked out of the laboratory. His shoes were clacking against the hard floor in the hallway.

He felt the needle that he held in his coat pocket and smiled, ready to use his toxin on Samantha.

The man reached the door and opened it quietly as he entered the room.

What he found in the room had intrigued him.

The girl was sitting on his bed, her dark wet hair clinging to her face as she was in deep concentration. Skillfully, he moved to the corner, so she wouldn't notice him in the room.

Crane continued to watch her. Apparently, she was drawing something on the paper he had left on one of his tables. He could see that she was deep into it, scribbling furiously away.

It had fascinated him, he had no idea that she liked to draw. He wondered what she was working on as she completely ignored her own surroundings.

_Why was she drawing in the first place?_ He thought as he continued to stare at her tense form.

He had never seen a person put complete concentration into something before. It was fascinating, watching her not move an inch, _not even to scratch her nose_, as she drew on the piece of white paper on his bed.

She was in her own little world. His mind told him as he contemplated whether he was going to interrupt her concentration.

Before he could make a move, she suddenly stopped and looked at her creation.

He watched her intensely as he noticed her face quickly turn into one of surprise. Crane could see her hands shaking as she held the piece of paper tightly in her dainty hands.

However, he was disappointed that he couldn't see the picture that was creating such a reaction out of her.

Furiously, the girl crumpled up the paper into a small ball and threw it at the wall closest to her. He saw her have a major break down on his bed, holding her face in her small hands and rocking back and forth crying tremendously.

She was in hysterics as she violently cried in her hands, her whole body trembling as tears seeped out of her fingers.

He was disappointed that he was not the one who had caused such a reaction. However, he felt a slight twinge of sorrow as he was reminded of his memory with the crows…

That was close to his reaction to his nightmare…when the crows attacked him in the church.

She had acted the same way, crying out in agony, but for what reason? _What was causing her anguish?_

_He had to know._

The man walked towards her suffering form, his eyes glued to the paper ball that sat in the corner near the wall that it had collided with.

She hadn't noticed him, completely stuck in her own despair. The girl didn't even look up at him, her head still buried in her fingers.

His hands quickly scooped it up, and unraveled it to show what she had been so frightened of…

The drawing had shocked him.

It was a drawing of him. In fact, it was a _very good _drawing of him.

Now, he knew what she was afraid of.

He sat down next to her shaking body as he studied the paper; much like his grandmother had studied the dust on her finger.

It was interesting; she seemed to be obsessed with him. That was why she had drawn him. That was why she had shown odd signs of behavior. She was curious about him…

…And that was what made her seem so brave. It all made sense now.

Her bravery had mainly been from her interest in him, her curiosity, and her need for knowledge. That was why she had been difficult. She had an obsession with him.

He understood now, but hadn't known what to make of it. He now understood what made her tick and it had been far more interesting than he could have expected.

Attentively, he wrapped his arms around the girl's body, not completely understand why she had been so upset upon seeing that she had drawn him. Though, he had suspected that she was also coming to realize her obsession with him, and it had frightened her.

She quickly flinched when she felt his arms around her and spoke to him.

"Get away…please…just leave me alone." She whispered hoarsely. Her body shaking far worse than it had done before. He didn't need his toxin to scare her, she was already frightened of him...and he _loved _every second of it. Crane had finally gained complete control of Samantha.

"I thought this is what you wanted, for me to be closer to you." He spoke slyly, his long arms holding her tighter. He was amused at the girl's reaction to his touches. "Don't you want to know more about me? You said it yourself that-"

"No! I know enough about you!" She growled beneath her hands. "You're nothing…nothing but a cruel bully, who enjoys controlling others… you abuse me and I hate it"

Well, he had certainly not expected her to make such a comment. He started to tense up, wondering if what she was saying was true. He wasn't the bully, society was, and he was just exposing the true cruelty of people, people like Miss Steller and his grandmother. Those were the_ true_ bullies. He was suddenly becoming determined to show her that she was wrong.

"I am not the bully, Samantha. Your mother is the abusive one and she is the reason you are here in the first place. I am simply punishing her for her actions. People are not as good as you like to think. The world that you live in has deluded you from the truth." He calmly lectured her, still holding her trembling body.

"No! No, that can't be true. My mother would never hurt anyone, she stands for justice, she protects the innocent and-"The girl spoke out to him. He chuckled amusingly at her attempts to defend her mother's innocence. Crane had cut her off.

"…And she saves lives? Samantha, your own mother lies to you. She is vile, vengeful, and treats others like a doormat. Your mother is no better than me. In fact, she is actually _worse _than me. That woman abuses everyone she comes in contact with, which is why I had captured you. In many ways, I have actually _saved_ you from her." He continued to lecture her.

"Just go…away." She said in defeat. He had her now.

"Deep down, you know I am right." He said finally as he continued to hold her, soothing her like he was comforting a small child.

The girl didn't speak to him, her lip quivering beneath the hands she placed on her face. Crane just continued to hold her, manipulating her with his comforting words like he was a snake, slowly coiling around her mind and body.

He knew he had gotten her. She now knew the truth, which was the knowledge that she had probably been pursuing from him all along.

Yet, a small part of him felt like she had been right about how he had been the bully…but he tried to shake the feeling off.

_…No, she was wrong._ The abusers were society, not him. He was just merely defending himself from them.

Batman, Miss Steller, his _own_ family, they had all hurt him in some way or another.

They were to be punished, they were to be blamed…

_Weren't they?_

* * *

**Well, there you all go, a long chapter for my kind readers. **

**Hope you enjoyed it. Till next time. **


	24. Security

**Alright, guys. I'd first like to apologize for having this chapter take so long. Lately, I have been busy with other things and I just haven't been able to get around to finishing this story. **

**So here is chapter 24! I hope that you enjoy it.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 24

Security

* * *

_The young girl cried uncontrollably in the arms of a monster…_

The criminal known as Jonathan Crane was holding her in his arms. It was almost as if he was offering some sort of comfort as she felt his strong hold tighten around her waist. She could even feel the warmth coming off of his body as she leaned into him, his eyes examining her form while she continued to sob quietly.

Samantha was an emotional wreck and her mind was a complete mess. She was broken and beaten, hurt by all of the abuse that she had been put through and she needed some sort of relief from it all.

Regardless of the person who gave it to her, she needed some comfort. She wanted to be told that everything was going to be OK and that she would get through this feeling. She wanted to know that she would be happy again.

Unfortunately, Crane offered no such words, but he did offer a little bit of comfort and allowed her to take refuge in his arms, while letting her cry out her frustrations.

She didn't understand _why_ he was holding her, but she didn't really care much anyway. The intense _need_ for a shoulder to cry on caused her to not really think about why Crane had wrapped his warm arms around her. Also, she was too caught up in the moment, releasing all of her pain through tears that flowed down her cheeks.

The girl was emotional, but above everything else she was completely _frustrated. _

She had been frustrated with _everything_, but most of all…

… _She had felt even more frustrated with herself._

It was like she didn't understand her own mind anymore, like nothing had made any sense. She was confused about her feelings, which had added to her anguish.

Everything seemed mixed up to her now and nothing was completely clear. She couldn't understand it.

Questions filled her head, even if she didn't want to think about them_. Why had Crane told her that her mother was responsible for her kidnapping? Why did he seem to hate her mother so much? What was Crane's real purpose for capturing her? Was he lying about everything?_

No answers came to mind regarding her questions. Everything was blank, like a black hole sucking all of her thoughts away, her mind went empty.

She knew that she had to eventually get answers from Crane and try to figure out what was really going on. Getting answers was essential and could aid her later in trying to get her self-control back. She needed to get some composure back; her sanity was on the line after all.

However, for now, she could relax. There was no need for her to push herself and waste all of her energy. It would take time for her to regain composure.

For now, she would take advantage of Crane's _tiny_ offering of comfort.

However, as she tried to lean in more on his chest, mostly due to her exhaustion, she felt him became very tense. His voice reached her ears with his usual cold and calculating tone, bringing her back to her senses.

"Your hair is damp." He commented coolly as he touched and examined a brown stand of her hair between his fingers, fiddling with it in between each of his digits. "Did you take a shower?"

The girl got tense. She was not surprised by the fact that he had assumed that she had recently taken a shower, but she still had wished that he hadn't asked her that question. It certainly didn't help that his tone had been so calm when he had asked her. She couldn't tell whether or not he was angry with her. He hides his emotions so well from her.

She knew better than to take the twirling of her hair as a kind gesture. He was most likely just messing with her and was waiting to blow up on her again.

However, despite her fear of him getting angry with her answer, she spoke anyway.

"Yes. I am sorry, but I really needed it." She said softly, waiting for his short fuse to switch on her again. He used any excuse to hurt her or make her scared of him, it was just the way he was.

However, thankfully, he wasn't angry with her at all. Instead, he just looked down at her and nodded as he spoke calmly back to her.

"It is fine, child." She let out a sigh of relief, glad that he seemed content with her. "You are allowed use the bathroom. That was one of the reasons why I am letting you live in my room for the time being."

He soothed her with his silky voice as she nodded her head. It was refreshing for her to be reassured by him. He had almost reminded her of a father figure or some kind of mentor, calling her child and comforting her in her time of need.

She didn't know why he was being so kind to her, but it was definitely a nice change of pace from how he would usually treat her.

Feeling a little bolder, she decided to speak to him again.

"Why are you doing all of this to me?" She questioned, finding that she was having a hard time speaking; her throat was beginning to feel sore from all of the sobbing and crying that she had been doing for the past hour. She was not feeling well at all.

For a moment he didn't answer her question, almost as if he was deep in thought about something. His stare was blank and he didn't even look down at her as she spoke.

Samantha assumed that he couldn't hear her. She raised her voice so that he could hear her.

"Why are you-"

"Yes, I heard you the first time child." He had quickly cut her off. She could sense his irritation and immediately wished that she had kept silent.

"I have already told you many times," He continued as she felt herself sink into a tiny ball. "You are my experiment. I needed someone to test my toxin and you happened to be the perfect subject." He finished as Samantha cringed at the tone of his cold voice.

"You had mentioned my mother playing a part in this." Her voice was laced with frustration. She mentally slapped herself for interrogating him. He was going to get angry with her. She was walking on thin ice now.

"Indeed, I have." He stated coolly. She could tell that he didn't like her probing. He was avoiding the discussion.

"What did she do? I know there is more that you are not telling me." She kept pushing.

"Do you really want to know, Samantha?" He asked, finally looking down at her. He slid his arms off her waist and sat beside her on the bed. "Can you handle the truth?" His face leaned into hers, examining her features.

"What truth? What do you mean?" She questioned him, while looking into his cold icy eyes.

"Oh, you are so naïve." He commented as he moved a strand of hair away from her face. She cringed at his touch. "Yet, you are so eager to learn."

She felt frustration begin to fill her. He wasn't giving her the answers she needed.

"Please, tell me." She begged him. He snickered at her desperation, a smile forming on his lips. His glasses reflected in the light of the room, and she felt the atmosphere get heavy with tension.

"Why is it so important to you?" He asked. "You feel such a need to question everything."

"I-I don't know." She whispered, suddenly getting nervous as he grabbed her chin to face him. Her eyes began to dart around the room. She didn't want to look him in the eye.

"You_ need_ information, even if you know it will hurt you." He continued, while bringing her face closer. She felt the warmth radiate from his body, his breath fanning her face. _Where was he going with all of this? _

"Please…I am uncomfortable…" She tried to pull herself away, but his grip on her chin tightened. Fear was setting in.

"You find security in having knowledge." He stated, while his lips curled upwards at her in a menacing way. She felt the urge to run, but was too afraid to move. He was too close. _Too close._ "I know your greatest fear, Samantha." He seemed so excited by it, like he had made a big discovery.

They were nose to nose, his body leaning towards hers like a predator about to devour his prey. She started to shake.

"W-what?" She squeaked, her voice trembling and breaking. She had no idea how he could read her so easily. He chuckled softly against her ear, moving in for the kill. His lips just grazing her ear as he whispered softly.

"Oh, you're an interesting subject." He almost purred, causing her to struggle in panic. He just smiled at her futile attempts to move away. "You try so desperately to fight me, but I have already won."

"Leave me alone…please." She whispered softly.

"Do you want know what your greatest fear is, Samantha?" He taunted. He looked into her eyes again, forcing her to look at him again. "Does it scare you that I know?"

"No…I-don't…" She stuttered, his lips nearly grazing her own. He loved this, taking great delight in seeing her crumble.

"Yes…you are frightened." He whispered against her lips. She froze like a bird trapped by a snake. His hand moved across her cheek. Her heart pounded violently, and she couldn't breathe. "You fear the unknown, Samantha. The unknown is your greatest fear."

Before she could utter another word, his lips pressed hard against her own. His hand caressed her cheek as he moved his lips against her, hungry for her to embrace his kiss.

She was shocked. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe.

He suffocated her, but her lips moved with him as she fell deep into the kiss.

* * *

**Well, there you go. I told you that the romance was coming. **

**Hope you enjoyed it. **


	25. Heart Break and Fear

**I am so sorry guys. I know that I promised to keep writing this story, but lately I have been busy with my first year of college. I hope that you can forgive me. I will try my best to get this done.**

**Please Read: I would also like to warn you that this chapter may be slightly mature and a little bit horrific. It is nothing TOO horrible, but it isn't going to be all rainbows and sunshine in this fan-fiction. Please keep in mind that this is also a horror story and it involves a villain who is notorious for creating fear. This warning is to readers who are very sensitive to horror. If you are expecting a happily ever after story, then this is not for you and you may want to stop reading now. I am not trying to be mean or make this story sound like it is going to be extreme horror, but this is just a warning for some people.**

**This story will remain rated T because it does not have very extreme violence or sexual themes. However, I will remind the readers that this is a dark story and it should be treated as such. I probably should have put this warning up in the first chapter, but I figured that this is where the story starts to move towards the ending and it may start to get darker as the story progresses.**

**Sorry, if I had scared some of you with the warning, but I thought it was necessary for the readers to know. I hope that you will still keep reading. Most of you already know that this is a horror story, but this is just a warning for the readers who are a bit sensitive. If you like horror and suspense, then this message is not for you. I apologize for making this message so long and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 25

Heart Break and Fear

* * *

Samantha sat stiffly on the edge of Crane's bed as he continued to kiss her.

She had the distinct feeling that she was falling. Her lips seemed to have a mind of their own as they moved to match Crane's actions.

She was stunned and couldn't turn away from him. Her body was in a trance, almost like she had lost her ability to move. She felt imprisoned in own body. Her mind was in a fog as she lost control of herself.

Crane continued to kiss her with great force. His hand held her face steady as he licked her bottom lip.

Pleasure had shot through her and she hated it. She wanted to turn away, but she couldn't. He was too strong.

His hand had held her chin in a vice grip. He was slowly moving her down on the bed and she noticed.

She felt the panic begin to rise within her, but she kept it well hidden. She didn't want to give Crane the satisfaction of seeing her despair. The worst of part it was the fact that she was kissing him back, unable to find the will to stop.

Part of her was actually _enjoying_ the kiss. His lips tasted sweet and she had never experienced a kiss like his before. The only kiss that she had ever experienced was a peck or two, but Crane's kissing was entirely different. It was deep and rough, nothing like she had ever experienced before.

There was something else to his kiss that made her enticed in his trance. He kiss was needy and lustful, another thing that she had never experienced before. She would've never thought that a simple kiss could have so much power. It was almost as if he _needed _to control her.

While his warm lips went to work, he placed her body down on the bed. Her back hit the soft bed and she felt Crane's body lay on top of her own.

Her heart began to pound furiously in her chest. Fear shot through her body as she began to shake. She didn't like the fact that his body was on top of hers she had felt even more trapped.

She whimpered softly through his kiss.

Crane must have noticed her discomfort and stopped kissing her. He studied her shaking form.

"Shhh. Shhh. Samantha, I am not going to hurt you." He said as he caressed her cheek with his hand.

She shivered at his touch. Her mind could now register what was happening as she felt her hands being held above her head.

He was lying; he was going to hurt her.

She started to struggle against him. Panic started to hit her as she tried desperately to find a way to shake him off.

"Get off of me!" She screamed, noticing the devilish smirk that was slowly forming on his lips. Her body continued to squirm underneath him. She fought for her life, fearful of what Crane was planning to do with her next.

Crane reacted to her futile attempts to escape with amusement. His lips curled upwards like a predator and his eyes reflected an icy blue as he kept his hand firmly on her wrists. He moved his face closer to hers.

"Scream all you'd like. I don't mind at all." He spoke coolly, sending shivers crawling down her spine. Her mind screamed at her to fight harder.

"What are you going to do to me?" She asked, obviously not liking the position she was currently in. One minute she was enjoying a comforting kiss and the next minute, she is pushed down on the bed with him lying on top of her. It was all happening too fast. She feared for the worst as she begged for his mercy. "Please, don't hurt me…"

"Samantha, you need to cooperate with me. I have told you before that I need you for my experiments. You will assist me by testing my fear toxin and as long as you obey me, I will not harm you." He spoke calmly.

She stopped squirming, but her body continued to tremble with fear.

"I can't…" She replied, terrified that he wanted her to test his fear toxin again. "Your toxin…It will kill me…" Her memory played back the images of her mother screaming in agony on the floor before her…all of that blood…She couldn't possibly go through that ordeal again.

"You are strong, my dear. My toxin will not kill you." He stated, trying to calm the young girl down so that he could use the needle on her again. He still needed to use Samantha for his experiments. He couldn't risk trying to search for another test subject now, not with Miss Steller most likely sending out an entire army to search for him. As much as he hated to admit it, Samantha had become very valuable to him. "I will only be giving you the toxin in small doses."

She was sad and angry. Crane had fooled her into believing that he actually cared about her. He manipulated her and she fell for it. He had used her distressed state against her.

He stared down at her, watching her reaction. Her eyes watered and she had turned her head away from him. She looked like she was deep in thought.

"Was that the reason you kissed me? To subdue me and get me to take your toxin again?" She questioned him, her sadness becoming apparent in her tone of voice. She was disappointed at herself for falling for Crane…Why did he fascinate her so much? She should have known better. It was a mistake to assume that Crane had even an _ounce_ of kindness within him. He played her and he had won.

Crane had been taken surprise by the girl's question. It made him question his own motives in trying to understand why he had felt such an intense attraction to the girl. He was confused by his own reactions to the girl.

He saw her trembling beneath him and witnessed the way her whole body seemed to react in fear of him. It was empowering, watching her finally submit to his will. He had to admit that he thoroughly enjoyed the control he had over her.

Crane had never felt such a power with his victims before. Most of his experiments would only be extremely afraid of his toxin, rather than of him alone. He wasn't even wearing his mask and she was still afraid of him, which had made him feel even more powerful.

However, Samantha was absolutely terrified of him because she had an obsession with him. She was interesting and she was so eager to appease him. He had to admit that it attracted him, seeing her suffer because of him. Yet, a small part still felt repulsed by the fact that he was aroused by her fear and suffering, and he couldn't pinpoint why. He _almost_ felt some sympathy for the girl's pain.

When he didn't answer her questions, Samantha's weak voice came out again.

"You don't even care. You just enjoy torturing me with your sick games." Tears came flowing gracefully down her cheeks as she turned her head away from him, staring at one of the blank, white walls. Her body still continued to shake uncontrollably.

"You're nothing." Her voice barely whispered for the fear that he would unleash his wrath upon her again. She was confused and angry at herself for giving into him. She felt like some of her innocence had been taken away from her, even if it was just a simple kiss. Her small glimmer of hope had been shattered. He had given her faith and then he had just taken it away with barely any effort at all.

"What did you say, mouse?" Crane asked her with irritation. The girl just wouldn't give in. She had to always open her mouth without a single thought. Well, he was getting tired of her antics.

Even when she was afraid of him, she would courageously speak out against him. He had to admit that the girl had the most guts that he had ever seen before. Perhaps, that was what attracted him to her in the first place. She was always willing to push just a little further. Her curious nature had made her rather courageous, which had fascinated Crane.

Upon hearing Crane's frustrated tone, Samantha froze as her heart kept quickening its pace. Crane had heard her and he sounded angry at her insult. However, she felt no guilt over what she had spoken. Crane was nothing…nothing but a horrible man who seeks pleasure by seeing her suffer.

She didn't answer him, angered by the way that he had toyed with her. His eyes scanned her face and she felt like he was trying to read her mind. Then, after a few seconds, he spoke to her again.

"You must cooperate with me. Take the injection of my toxin willingly and I promise that no harm will come to you." He spoke, trying to get her to bend for him. It would be easier for him if Samantha would just give in to his demands. He was tired of fighting with her constantly. He couldn't afford having her die on him now either. Crane knew that he was in a difficult situation. He had to get his experiments moving quickly if he wanted to defeat the Bat. If only the girl wasn't so emotional…

"Why should I help you?" She stated, biting her bottom lip in anger as she stared at the wall. Her mind was screaming at her to just shut her mouth and appease his demands. However, her rage made her tongue slip and she was now beginning to fear the consequences.

"You don't have a choice." Crane seethed. "I can use force if you'd prefer." He was getting angry now. Of course, the girl _had_ to keep pushing. "However, I don't think you would like that very much. Now, I think it would very beneficial for you to obey me. We both know how capable I am of harming you."

For a moment Samantha didn't utter a word and Crane assumed that she was refusing him again. He sighed in frustration as he searched for the needle in his pocket.

Samantha just stared at the wall. What was she going to do? As much as she detested him, she realized that refusing him would only succeed in causing more harm to her. She didn't think she could bare his torture any longer.

"Very well, then." Crane spoke as he pulled out the needle and was about to plunge it into her jugular. Her eyes spotted the object in his hand and she quickly spoke up.

"Wait!" Her voice quickly sprang as she saw Crane holding the syringe above her body.

He stopped abruptly and stared at her with slight interest, waiting for her to continue speaking. After another second, she broke down.

"I'll…I'll do it." She spoke in defeat. "I'll inject myself with it."

Crane just smiled as he crawled off of her shaking form and sat beside her on the bed.

She moved from her uncomfortable position to sit up straight on the bed.

Crane shoved the syringe into her hands.

"Here you go, child."

* * *

**Oh my goodness! Tune in next time folks! **


	26. The Price of Courage

**Hey guys! Sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I know this is getting really good, and I enjoy writing this story. However, I do have a life too and unfortunately it has been getting in the way of my story writing.**

**Anyway, I hope you can forgive me. I will try to update as soon as possible, but most likely I will end up updating every month from now on.**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter; it does get interesting (IMO).**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 26

The Price of Courage

* * *

_Don't do it!_

_Don't do it! It will kill you!_

_Please! For god's sake, don't do this! _

The small voice in Samantha's head kept breaking her concentration as she held Crane's syringe above the crease of her elbow, getting ready to inject herself fully with his toxin.

Her hand was shaking uncontrollably as sweat began to bead across her forehead and on the palms of her hands.

She was scared and she knew Crane was watching her closely.

What the hell was she supposed to do in a situation like this?

She was stuck, but she couldn't let Crane inject her again. That was definitely out of the question. She just couldn't put herself through that again.

Crane's wrath was not something to be challenge either. He could kill her if she disobeyed and she certainly wasn't stupid enough to take that risk.

Honestly, she still had no idea how she conjured up the courage to agree to this in the first place. Her mouth must have moved before she could catch herself. However, she was somewhat thankful for it. She figured that injecting herself with the toxin was _way_ better than having Crane do it.

After seeing Crane hold the needle above her, she knew that she had to speak up. After all, she was absolutely terrified of Crane's fear toxin, and she cringed at the thought of him stabbing the god damn needle into her throat again.

Her whole body shook at the mere memory of it. No doubt, Crane probably noticed. She caught a glimpse of his blue hues scanning her as she fought with her dilemma.

Needles scared her, plain and simple. There was no use denying _that_.

So she wasn't exactly _thrilled_ when Crane suddenly placed the dreadful object within her sweaty palms.

…And now she could see the horrible object as it sat between her fingers, glistening from the lights above her.

The liquid slushed around inside as she tried to steady her hand. She tried to hold her hand still with her free hand, but it still wasn't enough to stop it. Her hand was shaking from the terror as she continued to look down on the object.

The needle practically _glowed_ in the light, almost _mocking_ her for her attempts to control her own hand. She was quickly becoming frustrated.

_It's an abomination. _Samantha thought bitterly within her head, already feeling the hatred for the needle as it danced wildly within her hand.

After watching her futile attempts at controlling her own hand, Crane finally spoke up.

"What's wrong? I thought that you would've had more courage in you, Samantha." He spoke with amusement. Crane just sat back on the bed and taunted her, apathetic to the stress that she was currently experiencing. He leaned over to her, speaking with a vicious tone.

"Where is your courage now, little mouse?" He taunted with a sickening smile. It made her want to_ puke_. The thought of Crane calling her a _little mouse_ had her sick to her stomach.

She wasn't a mouse. She was a _human being god damn it!_

She had honestly felt more like a lab rat to him by the way he treated her, doomed to be tortured and experimented on for the rest of her days. It was a dreadful thought for Samantha. In fact, it had sickened her to the_ core_ that he thought that he had the right to treat her as his play-thing.

Crane thought of her as a coward and he assumed that she was weak.

Yet, Crane was wrong about her. She _wasn't _just a spineless little mouse. She was _courageous_ and much stronger than what he assumed about her.

At least she had the guts to face her fear of needles…That at least had to count for something.

In fact, she was determined to follow it through…whatever the cost.

She had to prove to Crane that she was strong, not a weak little mouse that he could play with.

_She would prove him wrong. _

Crane just sat back and watched as a smirk reached his face. His eyes watched eagerly as the girl tried desperately to gain her control back, but failed yet again.

He wasn't particularly surprised. The girl tended to be all talk and no action. So he figured that he would most likely end up administering the injection himself.

He watched her again as she tries to hold her hand steady and fails for the fifth time in a row.

At this point he decided that it was time to take measures into his own hands. The girl was obviously not capable of administering the needle herself.

He leaned more towards her shivering form and began to speak to her.

"If you can't give yourself the Injection, then I'll-"

However, before Crane could say another word, Samantha swiftly plunged the needle into her left arm, crying out in pain and fear as the object pierced her delicate skin.

Crane looked really caught off guard; he didn't expect Samantha to actually follow through with administering his drug.

She cried out when she punctured herself with the needle, mostly crying from the fear of it. Her body was still shaking from the adrenalin rush and another bead of sweat dripped down her brow. She stared at the syringe, and quickly pulled the needle out of her arm once she was done.

Crane's eyes widened in disbelief as she carefully pulled the syringe out of her arm as quickly as possible. It was all done within a few seconds.

Samantha just sat on the bed's edge panting, stunned by her own inner strength.

She had done it…She had conquered her fear of needles.

Crane just continued to sit and watch her with interest. He was amazed that she had dominated her own fear.

Before, Samantha had been severally frightened of needles and couldn't stand the sight of them, but now she was able to inject herself with one…? Crane was confused as to how she had done it, especially since she was under complete pressure from him.

Crane had to admit that she was definitely an enigma at times. Sometimes, he just couldn't understand her. Every time he thinks he has her cornered, the girl throws another curve ball at him by displaying extreme spurs of bravery.

He had never met a test subject who was so determined to fight him. Sure, he had people fight him before. However, it was mostly in threats towards physically harming him.

Instead, Samantha was different in the way that she fought him. She fought him more internally, by not allowing her spirit to beak under pressure and constantly disobeying his orders. Even he had to admit that she had showed more strength than he was prepared for.

However, Crane wasn't about to give up yet. He knew that Samantha had taken his drug and soon she would be feeling its effects, allowing him to take notes for his research.

He sat and waited for the effects to take over as he took out his trusty notepad, waiting for the toxin to do its job.

Samantha just stared at the floor, trying to fight the toxin that was now running fully through her veins.

She held her hand tightly in a fist, biting her lip as she saw the room around her start to change. The room was slowly turning into her worst nightmares, and she didn't even know where she even was anymore.

Objects seemed to fade away into the background as her eyes widened at the sights that she was witnessing.

Everything was gone…

And Crane keenly watched her as the darkness took hold of her.


	27. Falling Into the Black Abyss

**Ok, here is chapter 27. This is a chapter where Samantha is hallucinating under the effects of Crane's toxin. However, I want you to place close attention to what she is hallucinating. I will admit that this chapter is somewhat surreal and very imaginative. Haha and it is also kind of gruesome and horrifying. So, I am giving you fair warning. In fact, I may change the rating because of this chapter. So, hope you enjoy. **

**P.s. I don't know why, but I actually forgot about this story…**

**oops. At least it gave me ideas to put into it. So I guess that is a plus. Lol.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 27

Falling Into the Black Abyss

* * *

"_Oh, god…no."_

Samantha's voice cracked as her eyes darted frantically around the room.

Everything in the room started to change and morph. Objects began to disappear out of thin air. The floor was missing as she was slowly being engulfed in an abyss of darkness, a literal void of nothingness.

"_Please, stop this…"_

She called out in a desperate plea.

Her voice was now echoing throughout the room. She could hear the terror within her own voice as it bounced off the walls. The echoes were making it difficult for Sam to concentrate.

As she was distracted, the darkness had already swallowed half of the room. Everything was being submerged into the darkness. The black abyss was starting to inch closer to her.

She immediately panicked. Her eyes quickly darted around her surroundings, trying to search for a way out.

Unfortunately, her eyes landed on the man who was sitting next to her.

Jonathan Crane had been sitting right beside her. His hands were folded neatly in his lap as his blue eyes bore down on her shivering form.

Out of shear panic, Samantha gripped Crane's shoulders and started shaking him firmly.

"_How do we get out of here?" _Samantha ordered through yelling.

However, Crane had made no attempt to reply. He just continued to stare at her with a blank daze in his eyes. His shoulders felt cold and numb against her palms. She tried to call out to him again.

"What are we supposed to do?" She yelled louder. Her voice carried in a strong wave of echoes.

Crane still made no response. For a second, Samantha figured that he was dead.

She swiftly placed two fingers on his throat. She had to be sure.

No, nothing. No pulse whatsoever.

However, as she took a quick glance up at his face, she noticed that he was blinking, but then he returned to staring back down at her. Samantha shook with an icy chill crawling down her spine.

She felt uncomfortable being stared at. So she turns her gaze back to the growing darkness that was now rapidly surrounding the room. Everything was disappearing into a black hue.

Crane's eyes were following Samantha's movements as she quickly moved back on bed.

Her eyes widened in terror as she saw the black abyss move in close to them. The darkness had already reached the edge of the bed.

Samantha strained to keep away from it, but Crane seemed completely unaffected by it. He simply just continued to stare at her with his blazing blue hues.

Samantha was now crying, clinging to Crane's arm in fear.

She didn't know what else to do. The darkness had left her little space to move and she was feeling like she was being suffocated. The black energy was swallowing her whole.

In one last act of desperation, Samantha grabbed on to Crane's shirt and begged for mercy.

"_Please, just stop this…I can't take it anymore. I need your help."_

Crane just sat motionless next to her. He made no comment and he did not move.

Her tears ran down her face as she stared back at Crane. She knew that she was doomed. The darkness would suck her life in and it would probably kill-

_Wait…? Was Crane smiling?_

Through her watery tears, she saw Crane's lip start to twitch upwards.

Samantha rubbed her watery eyes in confusion. She didn't understand.

Crane was actually _smiling_ at her. Not a smirk or a fake smile.

No, this was something she had not seen before. Crane had never actually _smiled _at her before. He never smiled.

In fact, he barely showed any emotions at all. _So why was he smiling at her?_

Nothing was making much sense. Her mind was spinning. Everything was turning into complete and utter madness!

She felt the sudden need to back away from Crane, ignoring the darkness that was now consuming her. Her heart was pumping violently in her chest. Crane's shape was slowly morphing into something she could not explain.

The darkness had already taken him fully and Samantha watched in horror as his body started to change into something truly gruesome.

His entire body actually got thinner and scrawnier, while his face contorted into a round shape with glowing yellow eyes.

Samantha gasped and placed a hand on her mouth in grotesque shock. She saw Crane get taller in height, towering above her.

His hands turned into claws and his mouth was in stitches with blood seeping through his broken lips. Yet, the creature was still somehow capable to speak to her.

"_**Join me." **_

The beast's voice roared like thunder. It shook her to the core. She had no idea how to respond. The creature's eyes kept glowing down at her, waiting for a response.

"J…Jonathan Crane?" Her voice stuttered with fear. She was confused and frightened by the creature. Samantha was being faced with something she didn't understand.

"_**Not, Crane."**_The beast replied. Samantha quickly felt a small portion of relief. _Why would Crane turn into a monster? _None of it would make sense.

"_**I am a part of Crane."**_ The creature spoke again and suddenly lifted Samantha up in the air. He pulled her chin to look up at him.

She now had a clear view of the monster's face…it looked like some kind of scarecrow.

She was frightened…No, beyond frightened.

The creature looked somewhat amused at her reaction. His eyes were on fire and Samantha felt like she was slowly melting within his gaze. The monster kept locking eyes with her for some odd reason.

It made Samantha want to jump out of her own skin. She didn't want to look at the monster any longer. Her body started to squirm within the creature's claws, trying to break free.

However, the beast just chuckled at her attempts.

"_**You can't escape the darkness." **_Samantha heard his booming voice as she saw the stitches on his mouth move. As she continued to struggle within the monster's grasp, she suddenly felt strange.

She took a glance at her legs and saw the black abyss crawling up legs and reaching up her stomach. It stung her, almost like a burn. The pain was unbearable.

Samantha screamed and yelped in pain. Her voice was loud and echoed back to her.

The beast laughed at her agony as she started to panic, trying to get away from the darkness again. The pain scorched her, leaving her skin burnt and in extreme pains. Tears were streaming down her face as the black burns reached her chest. She felt like she was burning alive!

The beast held onto a huge grin, watching her become consumed by the darkness. She had no idea how she was still alive.

…_And as the darkness finally reached her head, Samantha had already fallen into the black abyss._

* * *

**Yeah…I hope you somewhat understand where I was going with this. The tone is getting very dark in this story. So I will change this to an M rating, just in case. Sorry, kiddies. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Also, if you didn't understand this chapter…then maybe this quote will help you.**

**Friedrich Nietzsche has said, "When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks at you."**

**Some of you will already know this quote (especially if you watch Criminal Minds) and some of you won't.**


	28. Questionable

**Alright, guys. This chapter is more about Miss Steller. Enjoy.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 28

Questionable

* * *

Miss Steller walked through Arkham's metal doors as an ID tag hung loosely around her neck. Surprised faces of Arkham's staff turned towards her direction as she entered the reception area.

Miss Steller had been out of work for about four days since her daughter's disappearance. She was told to take all the time she needed to recover. Her boss even encouraged it.

However, Miss Steller soon couldn't stand it much long. She was sick and tired of waiting.

It was time for her to take action. She wasn't going to sit around waiting anymore.

Miss Steller was going to investigate on her own now. She was finally ready to take matters into her own hands.

She finally decided that was going to Arkham, the place where the whole catastrophe had started.

Everyone's eyes were set on Miss Steller as she headed for the cell block area. She was going to start looking through Crane's cell for any clues.

Unfortunately, she was abruptly stopped by one of her colleagues.

"June? What are you doing here?" Doctor Henry Combs spoke as he carefully placed a gentle hand on his coworker's shoulder, trying to grab her attention.

Miss Steller recognized Dr. Comb's voice immediately and turned to face him. His face held a sympathetic look as he saw the bags appearing on Miss Steller's eyes. Her hair was slightly sticking up in odd places and her clothes looked as if she had recently slept in them.

"Leave me alone, Henry." Her voice came out cold and determined. She already sounded irritated by his presence. He continued to try to talk with her anyway.

"June, please just…"

"No. I am in no mood to talk to you." She interrupted him. "I have spent the last several days sitting at home, praying for any new information on the whereabouts of my own daughter! Do even know what that is like?"

Some staff members had watched their disagreement with interest, talking amongst themselves as they continued to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"I am so sorry. I understand that you're feeling terrible right now, but…"

"You don't understand shit." Miss Steller snapped at him. Her anger was raising, but she still made the attempt to keep her voice low.

Dr. Combs just backed away from her. He had nothing else to say.

Miss Steller turned away from him and scanned her ID tag next to the door. She quickly left the lobby, leaving Dr. Combs and other staff members speechless. She had more important things to accomplish.

Once she entered the cell block, she felt a horrible feeling overcome her.

Inmates screamed and hollered as she entered Cell Block A.

She hated the cell blocks. They were filled with inmates and other degenerates that didn't deserve the life that they were given.

Crane's cell was further down the hall, along with the rest of Batman's collection of psychos.

Miss Steller really hated all of them. Jonathan Crane was just one of the many inmates that were a part of the lower section.

Two Face, The Mad Hatter, The Riddler, and many other super villains were all contained in the lower sector of the cell blocks, which was located near the end of the hallway.

Miss Steller hated making the long walk to the end of the hallway because she was always forced to pass all of the other inmates. Most of the time, they would just scream and bang their fists against the glass. It was enough to even make the toughest guard feel a little uncomfortable.

As she walked past all of the other cells, the inmates kept staring at her. Their eyes peeked through the large glass windows of the doors, watching her with interest. Some of the inmates even had their faces pressed against the glass.

She paid little attention to them as she kept walking towards the end of the hallway.

She was almost at her destination when one of the inmates had made a snarky comment as she passed by.

"In a hurry, Miss Steller?" The voice snickered. "I am not surprised."

Miss Steller turned around and saw the Riddler looking straight at her. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking at her with curiosity. His posture was practically beaming with superiority.

He gave her a big toothy smile when she caught sight of him.

"Are you looking for your daughter?" He asked innocently, pretending to show some compassion.

However, Miss Steller was not in the mood for Edward's games. She knew that he liked to mess with the guards.

"That's none of your concern, Nigma." She scowled. She really was in no mood to put up with his antics.

"Ah, I'll take that as a yes then." He said with confidence. Miss Steller let out a frustrated sigh. She really did not want to talk to him, but she needed to find out Samantha's location and Edward already seemed like he knew something.

"What do you know, Riddler?" She spoke, trying to get straight to the point.

Edward smirked as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I am _afraid _I can't tell you, Miss Steller." He replied as his smile grew wider.

"I know that Crane took her, but I need to know where." She answered, watching the smirk on his face falter slightly.

"Where is he keeping her?" Her voice was dripping with venom, but Edward was barely fazed by it. She had moved closer to his cell. "Tell me where she is."

"_Oh…she's around_." He said carelessly as he began stretching his arms.

"Where?" She questioned again, becoming more annoyed and frustrated.

Edward just continued stretching his limbs as he looked completely uninterested in the conversation.

"Tell me. Now!" She ordered. Her angry was quickly raising.

"_Why, she's right under your nose_!" He snickered.

"Where?" She asked again, becoming more demanding. "No more games, Riddler."

"I already told you," His voice getting lower and deeper as he started to glare back at her. _"She is right under your nose."_

She didn't respond back. Miss Steller was now furious. She didn't understand. _How could Samantha be right under her nose? _Riddler wasn't giving her any clear answers here. He probably didn't even know where Samantha was located at.

He was most likely just messing with her, like usual. However, it still pissed her off.

"Really, Miss Steller? I gave you an easy one." He said as a large smile appeared on his face. "Don't you want to be reunited with your daughter?"

"I am done playing games, Edward." She replied, already turning to leave.

Miss Steller was done talking. He was clearly just wasting her time. Riddler didn't know anything.

Edward just watched her walk into the dark hallway towards Crane's cell. He shook his head as he saw her fade into the darkness.

He smiled a venomous smile and sat down as he whispered within his cell.

"_You're never going to find her."_

* * *

**Well, guys. There is your filler. **

**I hope you enjoyed the Riddler bit. **


	29. Points of Authority

**This chapter kind of goes into Crane's insanity for a little bit. Sorry for the wait. Hopefully, I will put up more chapters soon. For now, here is Jonathan Crane in all his glory.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 28

Points of Authority

* * *

He watched her silently on the edge on the bed.

Her body was shaking as she sat on the bed in utter shock. She didn't move. She didn't speak. The girl just continued to shake as her eyes grew wide with fear.

Crane just sat back and watched her in interest. He continuously took notes on his notepad, studying her body language and her movements intensely.

From what he could tell, the girl was in complete shock. She barely moved from the bed and her pupils were completely dilated. He also noticed that her hands were tightly gripping her knees to the point that her nails were digging into the fabric of her pants.

Crane could hear her breathing heavily and he knew that something was wrong.

He was becoming concerned that she would eventually have a heart attack, like many of his other experiments have had before.

Usually, he would just let the toxin run its course. Most of his victims would just die of heart failure due to the intense fear created from the toxin.

However, he couldn't have her dying on him now. After all, he still needed her for his experiments.

Quickly, he took one of her hands off of her knees. Then he placed his fingers on her wrist, trying to read her pulse.

Instantly, he could tell that her heart was beating rapidly. In fact, her heart was actually beating way too fast. If her heart kept beating at this pace, it would eventually stop altogether.

Of course, he didn't want that to happen.

Trying to act swiftly, Crane rushed to get one of drawers open. He pulled out another syringe from one of the drawers beside the bed.

It was a sedative. He knew that he had to act quickly before she could have a heart attack.

Crane carefully took Sam's arm and plunged the needle in a vein.

Gradually, the girl's heart started to slow down as she began to get drowsy. Crane gently placed her head down on the bed as she fell into a deep sleep.

He knew that the sedative would keep her out for a while.

Crane let out a soft sigh as he ran his finger through his hair.

The girl was lucky that he still needed her, otherwise he wouldn't have just saved her life.

Thankfully, he knew he wouldn't be keeping her for much longer. Crane knew that he would eventually create the toxin that would help him get rid of the bat. Then, he could finally get rid of the girl and throw her body right on June Steller's porch.

Crane smiled at the idea of Miss Steller waking up to find her daughter's dead body lying on her front steps with an expression of pure horror etched onto her face.

He would make sure to leave a note, telling Miss Steller that it was him who had done the glorious deed.

His smile widened. He would make sure that Miss Steller would never want to get in his way again. She wouldn't be a threat for him at Arkham anymore…

…And if she was, then he would just go after the other daughter.

Miss Steller needed to learn that she held no authority over him. He would show Gotham City that he held the authority and he would destroy the Batman.

No one would dare to bother him again…no one.

Crane would gain control and no one would stop him.

…And it would be all thanks to the young girl that he had captured.

In way, he figured he should be thanking Samantha. The girl would be greatly aiding him in his planning. In fact, without her, Crane's plan wouldn't work.

He truly needed Samantha.

From the moment that he saw her back at Arkham, he knew that she would be perfect for his plan to destroy Batman and to gain control over the city.

She was normal, which made her the perfect test subject for his plans. He needed someone who wasn't insane, someone who was average.

Crane knew he had made the right choice when he had picked her. Not only was she sane, but he soon found that the girl also had the strength to withstand his experiments, which was an added bonus.

Another bonus for him was the fact that he could hit two birds with one stone with Samantha. He could get revenge on both the Batman and Miss Steller at the same time.

It was perfect for him.

Crane had to admit that he did to some extent gain some appreciation for Samantha.

He looked down at her, his fingers rubbing his scalp as he continued to think about how she had injected herself with his toxin.

Perhaps, he had misjudged her. When he had first kidnapped Samantha, he figured that she wouldn't be able to really withstand his experiments. Luckily, she had turned out to be stronger than he had first predicted.

Then again, most of his patients who had _thought_ they were tough, became the most fearful under the effects of his toxin. He could make even the toughest criminal cry out in fear.

Yet, a simple young girl's spirit was the most difficult to crack.

Crane had to confess that he was starting to gain a little respect for the girl's courage. As much as he detested it when she would defy him, he still held some respect for her refusal to give up.

Part of him could identify with her strength and her need to fight him for control.

Over the years he had learned to fight back against his tormentors by using fear. He remembered when he had felt so helpless and was nearly just ready to give up.

Yet, now he was a stronger person. He won't back down from a fight anymore.

Samantha was similar in that sense. Even when it is time to give up, she refuses to back down. Some small part of him had admired that quality about her.

Maybe the girl wasn't too bad after all.

Of course, he would never grant her control over him, but at least he had admired her for trying.

He scoffed at the idea. As if she had the intelligence to gain control over him! Now, that was _insane_.

Crane looked back down at the girl's sleeping body. She looked relaxed as she had fallen into a deep and peaceful sleep.

She wasn't necessarily unattractive as far as Crane could tell. She was actually very pretty, in a normal sort of way. Compared to him, she was far more eye-catching. He was sure that she wasn't bullied for her looks, like he was.

As he continued to watch her, he found himself remembering the way that he had kissed. Of course, he _was_ manipulating her at the time. However, he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy kissing her.

It wasn't like he hadn't ever tried to kiss a woman before, but he could say that this was the first kiss that he had somewhat enjoyed.

His memory went back to the time when he had awkwardly tried to kiss Sherry, which didn't end to well. Sherry ended up using him instead.

Now, he had just used Samantha. He knew that the girl was attracted to him, possibly to the point where she was obsessed. Plus, the girl was also in a time of need and she was seeking comfort from him.

…And he had used that to his advantage…just like Sherry had used him.

Part of him felt a small twinge of guilt upon this revelation. After all, he _was_ technically using her to his advantage…

_No!_

She deserved it for being a fool. She had to be punished, right? _Right?_

He rubbed his temple in contemplation. Why was he questioning himself all of a sudden? Why was this girl making him question his own actions?

He glared down at her, feeling his anger raising.

It was because of her.

She honestly thought that she could control him? Well, that would not happen. Crane wouldn't let it happen.

He would wait until she wakes up…he would prove that a simple young girl wouldn't get the better of him.

_No one would get the better of him!_

He gripped the bed in irritation. His fingers wrapped tightly on the sheets.

He knew that_ he_ was the one that held the authority.

* * *

**Well, there is Crane's insanity for you. See? He doesn't really think like a normal person. I don't know if I did his character any justice, but at least I try. I actually see Crane as the type of person who is obessed with power and with finding ways to obtain power. It's kind of like an endless cycle with this guy. Ah well, that's just how I see it.**

**Anyway hope you enjoyed it. I might actually put up another chapter soon, since I go back to college in a few days. So YAY! Story!**

**BOO! College! lol**


	30. Good and Evil

**Hi people! Here is the chapter that I promised. This one goes a little in depth with Samantha. Just to let you know.**

**More Writers Notes: **

**Also, WOW! I hadn't expect this much feedback for my story, and for some reason most of the feedback I have been receiving is actually good. Honestly, I first started this story just for fun. I had an idea and I guess I sort of…just typed it out lol. I really didn't put much thought into it at the time. I have read many other stories on the character (Jonathan Crane), but I really just wanted to do my own story. Basically, I am just writing my own perspective of the character and I am glad that you enjoy it.**

**Anyway, I would like to thank all of the comments that I received. I want you to know that I do read all of the comments and I do appreciate the time that you took to review my story. So…thanks!**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 30

Good and Evil

* * *

Samantha slept comfortably in Crane's bed.

Her mind quickly drifted into a memory of when she was younger, a time where her life was simple and secure. It was a time when she actually felt safe.

Thankfully, the darkness had disappeared, letting her mind drift off and dream. Sam was quickly taken to a happier time within her life. It was a moment of her childhood.

It was early in the morning and she was ten years old, standing in the kitchen as she watched her mother get dressed in her police uniform.

Sam felt proud of her mother. After all, her mother was a cop for the GCPD.

Her own mother was the protector of Gotham City.

Sam quickly became aware that her mother took her job extremely seriously. Her mother was tough, always talking about how the criminals of Gotham were insane and how they needed to be put away for good.

She never really listened to her mother's rants much. The only thing that Sam really knew was that her mother was often stressed out from her job. Her mother still made time to be around, but Sam could tell that her mother was always exhausted.

Sometimes, Sam just wished that her mother would quit her job. However, she still couldn't deny that the badge was still kind of cool…

She watched as her mother tied her blonde hair into a tight bun.

Her mother turned and greeted Sam with a smile.

"Hey, honey. Do you have everything ready for school?" She asked.

Sam just nodded, returning the smile. The school bus would be picking her up in a few minutes.

Her mother was about to turn to leave when Sam quickly spoke up.

"Hey mom," She said before her mother could walk out the door. "Are all criminals bad?"

Samantha looked up at her mother with curious eyes, hoping that her mother could give her an answer.

Her mother looked deep in thought as she tried to search for an appropriate answer to give her daughter.

"Not always, Hun." Her mother replied as she tried to fix Sam's hair.

"How do you know?" Sam questioned as she swatted her mother's hand away. Her mother seemed a little surprised by the question, though she brushed away her surprise fairly quickly.

"Well, sometimes they are unhealthy." She responded.

"Why is that?" Sam asked again, a spark igniting in her eyes.

"Sometimes, good people will turn bad when they are unhealthy." She said swiftly, trying to get away before her daughter could ask more questions.

However, Sam wasn't giving up. She wanted answers.

"Why?" Sam asked again, while catching her mother before she could reach the door handle. She was extremely fascinated with the conversation and she needed more information. Sam gripped her mother's arm in anticipation.

Her mother tried to think of something else because she was already running out of answers. Her daughter had always been the questioning type and she knew that she would have to give her an answer before she would be allowed to leave.

Then, she thought of something.

"The healthy man does not torture others. Generally it is the tortured that turn into torturers." She said so fast that Samantha barely heard her.

"Wait. What?" Before Sam could question her more, she heard the door slam shut and she heard a faint "bye" as her mother promptly left.

Sam was confused.

Annoyed at her mother's lack of presence, Samantha tried desperately to remember exactly what her mother had said.

_What did it mean?_

* * *

Suddenly, Sam felt a rough tug on her shoulder. She groaned and attempted to turn on her side, but the tugging continued.

"Wake up." The voice was cold and Sam immediately recognized the person who was speaking to her.

She groaned in irritation and quickly bolted up into a sitting position on the bed. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to wake up.

She opened her eyes and found him staring back at her with his cold blue eyes. Her eyes blinked a few times to make sure that she wasn't dreaming.

He looked annoyed, Sam noted.

"What happened?" Sam asked in slight confusion. She could barely remember anything. "Did I black out?"

"No." He answered simply as he held her chin up to him, checking her eyes for something. Sam raised an eyebrow at him.

"Then, what happened?" She repeated as he gently placed her chin down. He placed a hand on her upper back.

"Nothing happened." He said calmly. Sam didn't like that answer. "Now, take long breaths for me. Breathe in deep."

Samantha reluctantly did what he asked. She took long breaths of air as Crane held his hand on her back.

"Please tell me." She begged as she looked him in the eye. Sam could swear that he seemed amused by her plea. He paused for a moment before responding.

For a second, Sam thought that he would give her an answer.

"Do you remember anything?" He probed, watching her intently as he removed his hand from her back. Sam felt a little intimidated.

"Bits and pieces." She replied, vaguely giving him the information he wanted. If he wasn't going to give her answers, then she would refuse to give him answers.

Crane wasn't too happy about that. His eyes bore into her soul as he leaned in next to her ear.

"Tell me, Samantha." He whispered softly, causing Sam to shiver. "Don't play games with me. I always win."

She felt her temperature begin to rise in anger. It came in the form of sarcasm.

_What was he going to do to her? Stab her in the neck with a needle again? Ha! Like that would help._

…And to think that she actually thought that he would be civil with her for _once_. Instead, he just threatens her like usual. It was like nothing had changed even after he had kissed her.

He really was an asshole.

Part of her just didn't want to believe that Crane was a complete monster. Yet, maybe he had kissed her because he was attracted to her. But even if he did, he would never tell her that.

All that she knew was that Crane kept his emotions and motives well hidden.

"I remember being engulfed in darkness and that's about it." She broke down, giving Crane what he wanted. He pulled away from her ear.

"Hmm." He said as he looked like he was deep in thought. She heard him mumble something about fixing his toxin.

_Oh, joy!_ She thought with bitterness.

Crane just looked at her and placed a hand on to her forehead.

Sam just watched him in confusion. His eyes narrowed slightly.

Before she could open her mouth to question, Crane's cold voice had cut through.

"You have a high fever." He stated as if he was blaming her.

Sam looked worried. She knew that if she was sick, then she wouldn't be useful to him anymore.

_Then, he would most likely kill her. _She instantly cringed at the thought. He quickly noticed her concern.

"You will have to rest for a while and you will need to eat something." He spoke as he walked to a mini fridge on the other side of the room.

Sam could swear that her mouth had dropped to the floor. She was shocked that Crane was offering to take care of her.

_Crane?! Is taking care of me?! _She thought as she saw Crane pull out some cold oatmeal and a plastic spoon from the mini fridge. He placed the cold bowl into her lap.

"Here, eat this." He ordered, sensing Samantha looking at him suspiciously and back at the oatmeal. She could swear that he looked amused by her expression. "I'll have to find a damp rag."

_Was this a trick? _She questioned, still surprised.

Her eyes landed on the oatmeal and her stomach made growling noises. She steadily grabbed the spoon and generously ate a large spoon full of oatmeal. It tasted terrible, but she would live.

She didn't notice that Crane had gone to the bathroom to find a rag.

He had returned with a damp rag and placed it her head. His eyes glanced down at her, meeting her confused gaze.

"Get some rest." He said in a rush, almost in a genuine attempt to show kindness. Sam could tell that his voice sounded more gentle and kind than usual. He had even placed a hand on her cheek. "I'll be back to check on you."

He stood up as if nothing had happened and walked out the door, leaving Sam feeling dizzy and confused. She could hear the faint sound of the lock clicking.

A smile quickly formed on Sam's face.

_Maybe Crane wasn't such a bad guy._

* * *

**Well, there it is people. I hope you are satisfied. :)**


	31. Falling in Love

**Ok, here is a fun chapter. I bet you guys will like this one.**

* * *

The Brave One

Chapter 31

Falling in Love

* * *

Jonathan stood in his lab as he tried to come up with a plan. His fingers ran through his hair as he tried to think.

The girl was becoming a rather large nuisance and he was starting to lose sight of his plan.

Crane hated to admit it, but he was confused._ How would he proceed with his plan if the girl was sick?_

Well, he could always just kill her…

_No! No, absolutely not. _He still needed a toxin that could effectively reveal Batman's worst fears. Samantha was the only test subject that he had under his current possession. It would be idiotic to go out and try to find a new experiment now.

_Plus, she is also very attractive… _His thoughts decided to drift. He could still remember the softness of her skin as he had…

_NO!_ He would not put himself in this position again. Not after what happened with Sherry.

He was not going down that road again. The time in which he thought that someone had actually cared for him.

In reality, he knew that no one cared for him. He was destined to be alone in this world since the day he was born. Nobody could ever truly love him.

_Love. _He hated that word. The mere thought of the word made him sick to his stomach.

Love had wounded him. It had manipulated him into Sherry arms and it had made a fool out of him._ Love had destroyed him._

Technically, he knew that love didn't really exist in the way that other people thought it did. Love was just a chemical formed in the nervous system. It was just a physical reaction to pheromones, just like every other human emotion.

Even if he was starting to become attracted to the girl, Crane knew that Samantha would never feel the same way for him. No one ever did.

In fact, none of the women in his life have ever actually_ loved_ him. His mother had left him in the hands of his cruel old grandmother and Sherry had manipulated him into humiliation. _Why would Samantha be any different?_

He had never really tried dating anyone before. During his college years, he had just focused on his work. Besides, most of his classmates made fun of him during college and most people had hated him. That was the reason he had never really tried dating. _After all, why would someone want to date a scrawny geek?_

Crane started to lightly tug his hair in anger. He remembered how cruel college was. He could remember how they had gossiped behind his back, talking mostly about his scrawny figure.

_Oh, how he had hated them._

They would taunt him…

_And tortured him… _Crane could feel his teeth grinding in rage.

_He could still hear their little snide remarks…Their stupid obnoxious voices still echoed in his head._

"_Look at the freak!"_

"_He is so thin. I don't think he even eats anything!"_

"_He thinks he is so smart. Arrogant little shit."_

CRASH!

Crane had quickly thrown one of his breakers at the wall. The glass had shattered into various pieces on the floor.

His breath came out heavy as he stared at the broken glass.

He usually didn't act out like that. Normally, he wasn't this absurd.

_What was happening to him?_

He sighed as he regained his composure, rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration.

Swiftly, he cleaned up the mess that he had created and placed the broken pieces of glass into a trash can. He wiped the sweat off his brow as he calmed down his nerves.

Crane was becoming irritated. He normally wouldn't have acted so irrationally. Now, one of his beakers was broken.

In annoyance of his previous actions, he placed his glasses down on the table and began rubbing his temples.

_Great, now he was starting to develop a headache. _

He knew that he would eventually have to check up on Samantha, but part of him didn't really want to see her at the moment.

Logically, he knew that the sooner that he checked on her condition, the sooner he could get back to injecting her with his next batch of toxin. Then, he could continue as planned.

However, he felt that he was in no mood to deal with her.

_Hopefully, she would be sleeping. _He thought as he could feel his head pounding.

Crane sighed deeply and placed his glasses back on.

He figured he would have to check up on the girl sooner or later. He might as well get it over with.

He took off his lab coat and placed it on the table next to him. Quickly, he walked out of his lab and into the narrow hallway that lead to Samantha's room.

As he walked at a brisk pace, he tried to gather his thoughts.

He knew that she would probably need a lot of fluids if she was to get better. It would be best if he'd poured her a glass of water and made her drink.

_She might be dehydrated. _He thought as he had quickened his pace to reach her door.

Once he had reached her door, he had quietly slipped in.

He immediately saw that she was sleeping with her tiny fingers tightly gripping his blankets.

She looked peaceful in her sleep. Her long brown hair completely covered the pillow as she took slow breaths of air.

_Good. She is alive at least. _Crane thought as he walked closer to her.

He silently sat on the edge of the bed, watching her chest move from under the blanket. His hand moved over to her forehead, touching her soft skin.

His eyes narrowed in contemplation as he realized that her head had felt warm. He knew that she was still sick.

Samantha didn't move as Crane laid his hand upon her cheek. Her cheek was also rather warm.

He looked down at her face, noticing a reddish tint appearing on her cheeks. He figured that the fever was really raising her body temperature.

However, before he got up to get her some water to drink, he found himself leaning in close to her face.

He saw her pink lips slightly opened as he continued to lean in closer, remembering her sweet taste…

Unconsciously, his face leaned in just a few inches above hers. He could feel her warm breath on his lips.

Before he could register what he was doing, he placed his own lips on hers, kissing her softly.

He was once again surprised by his actions as he was about to quickly pull away, but something strange had happened.

Samantha had been kissing him back.

* * *

**Haha! Sorry I just had to leave that one on a cliffhanger! Muhahahaha.**

**Btw I wasn't really sure if this would be something that Crane would do, but I just could help myself. It was just too good of a moment to pass up. This is where things really start to change between Samantha and Jonathan. **


	32. Desire

**Well, here is another treat from me. I am feeling rather generous since my home team (The Ravens) has won the super bowl championship last sunday. So, in my good mood, I am giving you yet another chapter.**

**Note: This chapter will get more heated between Sam and Jonathan. I will be descriptive, but it won't get too mature. I don't think that this needs a mature rating just yet, but it may change in the future. I already have an ending to this story and some people may be a bit sensitive to it. However, I will keep it rated T for now. Also, the ending will have a bit of a twist. Just so you know.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

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The Brave One

Chapter 32

Desire

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Jonathan felt her small lips move against his. Her pink flesh moved against his own, leaving her sweet taste on the tip of his tongue.

Her kiss was pleasant and soft. _It made his mind go blank._

Crane had kissed her back in absolute bliss. His lips craved the contact as he moved in, leaning down towards her warm figure.

He felt strangely comfortable, as she wrapped her thin arms around his neck and then pulled him in closer to the bed.

The only thing that he could think about during the moment was the way that her lips felt as they kissed. It was almost like he was in a trance, being hypnotized by the pleasure that he felt.

This had never happened to him before. She kissed him so tenderly, making him feel relaxed and confident…Almost similar to how _he_ had kissed her before.

He nearly found it ironic that the roles were now reversed. However, right now he could care less about that. He was too deeply involved in the kiss to be concerned about it now.

Suddenly, he felt her tongue lightly flick against his lips and he immediately felt intense pleasure hit his nerves.

Crane groaned into the kiss, causing Samantha to shiver underneath him. He moved his own body on top of hers as he kissed her more passionately.

Samantha had gasped at the new position that they were in and he quickly took advantage of it by moving his tongue in between her lips.

His tongue moved against hers as he explored her mouth. He felt her tiny fingers moving within his hair, gripping him tightly.

He had never really tried French kissing before, but somehow he had felt confident about it once the girl started to moan into the kiss. He smirked into her lips as she pulled away from him for air.

_That was when it all had really started to hit him._

He was shocked and confused at his own actions. _Why had he kissed her? Why did she kiss him back? Was she trying to seduce him?_

Crane didn't really know what to do. He was flustered. His heart was pounding and his breathing was shallow as he looked at Samantha.

Her chocolate brown eyes looked up at him with a feeling that he couldn't really identify.

He noticed how attractive she looked to him right now. Her dark brown hair was flung all over the place as her lips were slightly parted...

He could feel her breath fanning his lips as she took deep shallow breaths. He knew that her heart was also beating rapidly as his body laid on top of hers…

Crane became so occupied in her appearance that he barely heard his name being called.

"Jonathan…?" She whispered, sounding just as confused as he was at the moment. Her voice came out soft and weak.

He didn't know how to respond. It was the first time that she had actually called out his first name. In fact, he almost _enjoyed_ it.

Jonathan couldn't really explain what he was feeling as he looked down into her dark colored eyes. Her hands were still buried within his hair.

He couldn't do this again.

Eventually she would reject him, just like Sherry had done to him. She was just trying to toy with him until she would get the chance to strike back at him. He had to get away from her.

Acting quickly, he started to try to sit up and move away from her.

"Please, don't…" She spoke in a low whisper. Her voice cracked as he felt her lightly tug at his dark hair.

He looked down at her and was surprised to see her eyes beginning to water. Her breathing was still shallow as she stared up at him. _There was fear within her eyes_.

"Don't leave me again." She said with tears rolling down her cheek. Her lips were trembling as she tried to turn away from him.

Crane was startled as he came to a realization. She was afraid of his answer. _Samantha was actually afraid that he would reject her!_

This had stunned him. He didn't know what to make of it. This had never really happened to him before. _Did he really desire this young woman? Did she feel the same?_

He was too confused to know the answer. Crane didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to feel anxious.

_How dare she make him feel this way? _This was ridiculous! He was supposed to be the Master of Fear!

Yet, every time he looked into her eyes, he felt something. It was something that he would keep trying to push away, but it would always come back again.

In all honesty, he didn't really want to acknowledge his attraction to her.

Instead, he was _frightened_….

_The Master of Fear was terrified of rejection!_

Apparently, they _both_ were afraid of rejection.

He tried to look down at her again, but her head was turned. She didn't want to look him in the eye and some part of him really couldn't blame her. Her hands were now gripping the side of the blanket that she was covered in.

_Maybe she was even more afraid of rejection than he was? _He thought to himself, trying to analyze the situation.

However, for some reason he couldn't really think at the moment. As much as he hated to admit it, he had to confess that he was starting to develop feelings for the girl.

As he continued to look down at her, he noticed the tears that had been sliding down her cheeks. Samantha wasn't stupid. She probably assumed that he was just manipulating her again.

Yet, for some reason he didn't really _want_ to manipulate her. Not this time, at least.

Part of him actually still wanted a _real_ personal connection. He wanted someone to share his life with, but he just had never gotten the chance. After all, every person that he has met in his life had betrayed him.

Now, he has another chance, but that still didn't mean he wasn't nervous about it. He had to be cautious in this situation. For all he knew, Samantha could be plotting to fool him.

With care, his hand touched the girl's wet cheek. She flinched at first, which made Crane think that she was disgusted with his gesture…

However, she had quickly accepted his kindness as she placed her own delicate hand on top of his. He could feel his heart pounding wildly within his chest as she looked back up at him.

"Thank you." She whispered to him. He noticed a wide smile appear on her smooth pink lips. Her fingers were starting to intertwine with his.

For once, he had actually smiled back at her. He felt strange as he leaned in and gave her a light kiss.

"You're welcome." He had whispered softly in her ear.

_Oh, what in the world was he doing?_

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**Well, there you have it. Crane seems to be giving in to his own desires, but is this a good thing? I guess we will soon find out. The next chapter will most likely be geared into Samantha's perspective on all of this.**

**Anyway, I hope you like seeing Crane's softer side. I would like to hear your comments on that. Maybe I went too soft with him. Ah, well. This is my story anyway. If I want to make him more human, than god damn it, I can! lol**


	33. Conflicted Feelings

**This chapter goes a little more in depth with the characters relationship together. Hope you enjoy!**

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The Brave One

Chapter 33

Conflicted Feelings

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Samantha couldn't understand what was happening between her and Jonathan Crane.

Shouldn't she hate him? Why did she want him to stay with her?

She knew that it would probably be a mistake for her to trust him, but some part of her still wanted to believe that Crane was a good person.

Somewhere in her heart, she knew that he was starting to care for her. He was slowly breaking, showing her pieces of himself that he normally kept well hidden from everyone else.

Isn't this what she had always wanted in the first place? Didn't she want to learn why a criminal like Crane would turn to crime?

In a lot of ways, Sam was a lot like her mother. She always wanted to question things, to investigate the truth behind a good mystery.

Of course, right now Crane was the biggest mystery that she had ever faced. He still puzzled her with his bizarre behavior.

Why did he even care? That was the big question.

A big part of her knew that she was quickly becoming attached to Jonathan Crane, but she still couldn't understand why he had decided to treat her with such kindness. It was very out of character for him and it made her somewhat suspicious.

Though, she had to secretly admit that she was really starting to like this new side of him.

Crane had surprisingly stayed very close to her side after she had asked him to stay. He had taken good care of her and tried his best to keep her fever down while she was sick. She felt very appreciative of the way that he took interest in her wellbeing.

He seemed to have changed somehow, though Samantha wasn't completely sure why he had changed his attitude towards her. It still seemed to unsettle her a bit.

She wanted to believe that they had both started to grow more comfortable with each other and that he wasn't just trying to manipulate her again.

Unfortunately, she was becoming more afraid that he was tricking her somehow. It wouldn't have been the first time.

Feeling bold, she decided to talk to him while he was putting another moist rag on her forehead. It had been about a day since he had decided to stay and take care of her. She knew that he was getting tired from lack of sleep. His eye lids were slowly drooping as he sat on the edge of the bed with her.

"Jonathan?" She questioned, wondering if it was ok if she spoke his first name. When he had made no comment against it, she continued to speak to him. "Are you ok?" She asked, feeling suddenly concerned that he was obviously losing sleep over her. Part of her felt a bit guilty for becoming ill and then asking him to stay and watch over her.

"Yes, I am fine." He responded quickly, but the bags forming underneath his eyes had suggested otherwise. Why was he doing all of this for her? It wasn't like she deserved it or anything. She wasn't even really that special, was she?

"I am starting to feel a bit better," Samantha lied. She knew that her fever hadn't gone down in the last few hours since he was with her, but she still thought that he needed to take a break. "Thank you for taking care of me, but I think I am fine now."

At first, he had just stared at her, but then she started to see a smile begin to form on his face. Two lines had connected with his nose as his smile had widened considerably. Sam was somewhat confused.

"Do you really want me to leave, Samantha?" He asked with slight venom in his tone. Sam was slightly confused, but she was afraid that Crane had taken her comment the wrong way. "I thought that you wanted me to keep you company. Wasn't that what you wanted?"

Sam was faltering slightly at the hurt within his voice. He acted like she was rejecting his kindness. Did he really think that she wanted him to leave?

Or maybe a better question, did she really want him to stay? She was beginning to question whether she was starting to develop strong feelings for this man.

It was honestly frightening to her. _Was she seriously developing feelings for a criminal?_

No, no. Jonathan was much more than just a criminal. He was a human being too, she reminded herself.

"Yes, that is what I want." Her answer had startled her, like she was making the biggest confession of her life. It was frightening to acknowledge that she had fallen for a killer. What would her mother say?

She heard him let out a long sigh.

Was he relieved? She wondered, watching him gaze up at the ceiling. He seemed to be contemplating something, but she didn't know what it was.

Finally, he had turned his full attention back to her again and asked a question that chilled her to the bone.

"Are you afraid?" He asked, without showing much emotion at all. She knew that he could sense that she was afraid of him hurting her again.

He was a mastermind. Of course he was able to pick out her fears with quick precision. She had to admit that she was slightly impressed with his ability to see through her so accurately.

"Yes." She answered, lowering her head because she didn't want to see the evil smirk that would no doubt be forming on his demented face. Who was she kidding? Crane was manipulating her all along. Why else would he be picking apart her fears again?

"Samantha, I can reassure you that I do not wish to-"

"Yes, you do. That's all you ever care about. You are addicted to the power." Sam had cut him off, getting angry that he had tried to play with her feelings again. She didn't even bother to look back up at him.

She sunk into the bed as the silence filled the air, but she still refused to look at him.

Sam was really disgusted with the way he played with her. He seemed to have no respect for her or her emotions. She quickly getting angry at herself for falling for his games again and again. It was getting old fast.

She gripped the sheets tightly in her fists. Anger was starting to pour out of her.

Suddenly, he had broke the tension.

"I am afraid too." He admitted quietly to her.

Samantha was shocked. She quickly looked back up at him and noticed that he was staring off up at the ceiling again, trying to look away from her. He seemed to be deep in his thoughts again.

How was he afraid of her? It didn't make any sense.

"Why would you be afraid of me?" She said more to herself. Her heart was racing now at the idea that Jonathan really did have feelings for her.

Once again, there was silence for a minute. She could feel the tension in the air. The room seemed to get warmer and it didn't help that she had a fever to go along with it.

"For the same reasons you are, Samantha." He spoke so promptly, that she almost didn't catch what he had said to her. He was still looking up at the ceiling, like he was trying to avoid her.

Maybe he really was afraid of her.

Did he really think that she would try to manipulate him? Sam figured it would make a lot of sense considering the fact that most people in her position would be trying everything they could to get away from Crane.

Yet, she knew that she wasn't like other people. She wanted to get closer to Jonathan, not further away from him.

Suddenly, she had felt a deep need to assure him that she meant no harm to him and that her feelings were genuine.

She was about to open her mouth to comfort him, when he had unexpectedly decided to speak to her yet again. She could notice a small smile forming on his lips as he spoke.

"However, I am more than willing to face my fears for you." Jonathan articulated fondly to her. For a second, Samantha felt her heart nearly stop at his confession. His blue eyes bore into her and she had let out a slight gasp of surprise when he had rested his hand on her cheek.

She felt comfort in feeling his thumb lightly rub against her cheek. A smile began to form on her lips.

Yes, now she wanted him. She now understood that she wanted to trust him, to give him a chance.

"So am I." She whispered softly with his breath now fanning her face. Her dark eyes look up at him and she then noticed that his eyes seemed much softer than what she was used to.

She quickly leaned up against the pillows to kiss him deeply. He kissed her back with equal intensity. It had been a long time since she felt this good. His warmth had brought her extreme comfort.

Samantha was finally starting to feel happy again.

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**(Notes regarding this particular chapter)**

**Ok, I figured that this chapter was needed in order to finalize their relationship. Though, I do hope that it wasn't too mushy. I tried to keep Jonathan still in his character somewhat. Hope I did an alright job at it. Lol.**

**(Notes regarding Jonathan Crane's character and specifically chapter 27) **

**Also, I would like to make note that Jonathan Crane in this story does not have an alter ego (Aka Scarecrow). He is not like Two Face. I never really understood why people considered Jonathan to have an alternative personality. In the comics, the scarecrow outfit was more of a symbol of his torment over the years. I don't think that it was really intended to be an alter ego for him like Scarface or Two Face. **

**I think Scarface and Two Face are the villains who both have split personalities. I always saw Jonathan as having only one personality, so that's going to be how I write him.**

**However, this is just my interpretation of him. A lot of writers seem to like to write him with two personalities. I had just written Scarecrow as more of symbol that Samantha sees in her nightmare, representing her fear of Jonathan, but that's all that it really was.**

**Sorry if that was confusing. Hope you guys still enjoyed this chapter. **

**(Notes regarding next chapters and ending) **

**The end of this story is approaching fast and I promise that it will be a shocker. It won't be anything that would be too crazy, but it may catch some people off guard. I don't know, I am letting you all decide once I can finally finish this story. I am probably going to go back and fix some of my older chapters after I finish.**

**Also there might be a sequel too. Not too sure yet. **


	34. Desperation

**I am so sorry! I know that I am really late, but hopefully you will all forgive me. This chapter is where things start to get really interesting. Pay attention. Also, there is a short cameo in this chapter. So hopefully you will enjoy!**

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The Brave One

Chapter 34

Desperation

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June was at wit's end with trying to find information about her missing daughter.

She kept coming back empty-handed. Jim Gordon had never called and she hadn't found anything in her last visit at Arkham. Desperation and panic was starting to settle in.

There wasn't much word on the news about her daughter. However, she found that the Dark Knight had been more preoccupied with finding the Joker and Two Face, and not finding her daughter.

Some part of her was beginning to doubt that her daughter was still alive. It terrified her that she was beginning to lose hope.

Miss June Steller needed answers soon. The whole situation was driving her crazy.

At this point she was even desperate enough to beg for the Bat's help, for god's sake.

She cringed at the thought.

No. She would not crack. That's what Crane would want from her. It was probably his plan to drive her insane.

He wanted her to be too terrified to ever walk into the Asylum ever again, but she wasn't going to succumb to that.

No. Instead, she was going to march back into Arkham and act like nothing was wrong. If these criminals even sensed that she was breaking, they would definitely take it upon themselves to completely destroy her, almost like the Riddler had done when she had visited Arkham about two or three days ago.

Crane must have tipped him off on his plans, but she knew that Edward had just been playing her by saying that he knew where her daughter was.

He was lying. He had to have been lying.

Edward would never risk giving out information on the Scarecrow like that. He was smart enough to know that Jonathan wouldn't appreciate him snitching like that.

Besides, everyone knew that Edward was a liar and a cheat. The doctors would often mention that he would often lie about a lot of things, trying to pretend that he was superior.

Luckily, Miss Steller never really dealt with Edward that much. Now, Joker on the other hand…

She hated that she would have to deal with Joker again. Hopefully, he would be in solitary since he was just recently captured by Batman.

Joker wouldn't be causing too many problems now.

Miss Steller walked into Arkham with her uniform. She was ready to work again.

The other staff members stared at her sympathetically when she walked in, but she didn't really pay them any attention.

She had passed Crane's old cell, noticing that the dirty cell had been scrubbed clean from when she last saw it.

June remembered searching through his cell. The only thing that she could find was a piece of straw stuck on the pillow, reminding her that the cell had once belonged to Jonathan Crane.

It still didn't help in her investigation to find her missing daughter though.

Crane was smart. He wouldn't have left anything in his cell. She should have assumed that from the beginning.

She also remembered Crane's cell being dusty with dirt and grime. Thankfully, the janitor had finally cleaned it.

Miss Steller quickly made it to Mr. Sharp's office. The gold sign on his door read, "Warden Quincy Sharp".

Mr. Sharp was the man who ran the Asylum. June always thought the warden was a bit spineless though. The doctors would often say that he was very paranoid. She couldn't blame him. The Asylum always kept the staff on their toes.

She knocked on his door, hearing a faint "come in".

Quickly, she walked in and sat down in his comfy chair. Mr. Sharp had statues of himself within the large office. He also had a huge inviting fire-place. Quincy was always old-fashioned in his tastes.

"Ah, June. I wasn't expecting you to be coming in to work so soon." Sharp spoke, while noticing the uniform that she was wearing. "Are you sure you will be well enough to come in today?"

"Yes, sir. I will be just fine." She said sternly, getting annoyed with everyone's pity party.

"Good. You will be needed later in the Penitentiary today. Batman has brought in some inmates since the massive break out. The walls are still being repaired from Joker's escape attempt." Sharp cringed slightly. He really hated The Joker.

Miss Steller suddenly noticed that the Warden's office had already been quickly repaired from Joker's explosives. She thought that it was strange that he had decided to repair his office so quickly. It had only been a few days since Joker's break out. She could see that the hole in Sharp's grand office was already covered and fixed. Her boss was even more paranoid the she had thought.

"Thank you, sir." She spoke politely as she walked out of his office.

Her heels clacked against the hard floor as she head towards her office trying to organize her thoughts.

Unfortunately, her thoughts kept drifting back to her missing daughter.

Was her daughter still alive? Was she being tortured? She could only imagine the pain that she was going through.

Crane probably had her strapped on a table in some old abandoned warehouse in the Narrows. It was no doubt that he was experimenting on Samantha with his deadly fear toxin.

Why did he have to take her? Miss Steller questioned as she felt her anger boiling inside. Why couldn't he just take me?

Samantha did not deserve any of this.

She was innocent! Crane should have left her alone!

Her hands started to ball into tiny fists as she reached the Asylums elevator. She quickly got inside and mashed her finger hard on the down button.

She knew that she needed to calm down. Killer Croc was being moved into his cell down the basement.

Killer Croc was some monster with a rare skin disease that made him look like a giant crocodile. His real name was Waylon Jones, but no one ever calls him that. The doctors are still convinced that he is a human being even though he behaves like an animal. June still doesn't understand why the doctor's keep trying to interview him every morning.

June took deep breaths of air as she reached the basement. She was going to need all of her strength if she was going to handle Croc.

Her hands slowly started to relax as she spotted her friend Aaron Cash at the end of the hallway. He had his navy blue uniform on as he kept talking into the walkie-talkie in his hand. She quickly started to walk towards him, while still trying to stay calm.

When Cash finally noticed her coming, he was clearly surprised.

"June? What are you doing back here?" He asked in shock. "I thought you wouldn't be back for weeks."

"Well, staying home alone wasn't helping me much. So I decided to come back for work." She replied quickly, not wanting to get into a discussion about her daughter.

"I heard a rumor that you had looted around in Scarecrow's cell down in the Cell Block area." He said, looking questioningly at her.

The Riddler must have told Cash about her little trip into Crane's cell to look for clues.

_Damn Bastard. _She thought bitterly.

"Look, don't worry about it. I was looking for evidence." She quickly stated, wishing this conversation would end.

"I hope you're ok, June." He calmly replied, sensing her agitation.

"I am," She said with a slight hint of anger in her tone. "So, drop it."

"Ok." He said hastily as he noticed Killer Croc walking with the other guards down the hall. Croc's stomps on the floor had made the basement shake as he walked towards Miss Steller and Cash.

He came closer and closer, while Cash started to turn a little pale. However, instead of moving past them, Croc stopped right in front of Miss Steller and snarled like an animal. His body crouched down so that he would hit the ceiling.

"Heard ya lost your daughter," He taunted her while chuckling. "That's too bad. I was hoping that I would get to her. She would've made a nice snack."

He continued to laugh at her and Miss Steller felt the need to punch him square in the face, but she knew better. Croc was larger than her and had large fangs. There was no way that she could beat him in a fight. He would probably just take her hand off like he did to Cash during a break out attempt. Croc bit Cash's hand and swallowed it whole. Now Cash has to use a hook as a hand. Croc is truly a horrible monster.

"Move it!" Cash shouted as he pressed a button on a remote to Croc's shock collar.

An electric current flowed through Croc as he cried out in pain. After he quickly recovered, he started walking back to his cell down the corridor. The other guards swiftly followed behind him.

"Are you alright?" Cash nodded towards June, while still holding the remote tightly in his left hand. She saw that his face was still pale, but he also looked irritated.

"Yes." She said through her teeth, unable to control her rage.

Cash seemed satisfied with her answer as he started making his way down to Croc's cell.

Miss Steller's fists started to shake. Her anger kept rising the more she thought about Croc.

_How dare him! _ She thought to herself as she grew angrier. She wanted to punch something.

Suddenly, she started to slam her fists into the wall of the building. She ruthlessly hit the wall again and again, smashing her tiny fists against the solid wall.

Her knuckles started to bleed, but she didn't pay any attention to it. She couldn't even feel the pain as she continued to hit the rough surface of the walls around her.

As she finally started to tire out, she pulled her right fist back to give one last punch.

Putting all the strength into it, she suddenly punched a small hole right through a hollow section of the wall.

Shocked by her actions, she quickly withdrew her hand from the hole.

_What? Is this a hole?_ She examined as she tried to regain her own breath.

Miss Steller knew that Arkham was an old place, but for some reason the right side of the wall had felt almost like cardboard.

Carefully, she started to knock around the edges of the hole.

The sound seemed to give a loud echo, signaling that the wall was hollow and easily breakable.

_Is there something hidden behind this wall? _She questioned as she started at the damage that she made.

Miss Steller hastily took out her night stick from her side and started to quickly beat the wall in. It started to literally come apart like paper.

Once she had gotten rid of most of the wall, she poked her head slightly forward to see what she had found...

_What she found was unbelievable..._

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**Can you guess what she found? :) Also, hopefully I can get this story done so that I can fix errors in the earlier chapters. We are almost at the end my friends. Only a few more chapters to go.**


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